Twin Moons
by Ldzetc
Summary: The war takes a different turn after Ichigo and co. return from Soul Society.  A year later the war is still raging on with no end in sight.  IchixHichixHime.  Dark war/threesome fic- het & yaoi, pervery, language, blood, gore...
1. Chapter 1

The story more or less sticks with the manga, up until the gang gets back from Soul Society. The war takes a different path here. Characters may vary in certain ways because of this. This is the first fic I'm actually posting. I've read so many wonderful stories on here; I'm excited to finally contribute a bit. I'm not the best writer but the story was begging to be written out. So… Please have mercy on me. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the story.

This is going to be an IchixHimexHichi threesome fic but… I need to get some things in place before there's going to be much action going on. There will be some plot and fluff then you'll get your smut, don't worry. I may or may not have some song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter, but I thought these fit in nicely here. A big thank you to Sariniste for reading my preview, encouraging me to actually write this out, and giving me some useful tips. I don't own Bleach, Kubo does.

**Japanese words used will be defined at the end of each chapter. _Italics indicate a mental conversation between Ichigo, his hollow, and his zanpakutou.**_

* * *

Tell me what you know about dreamin' dreamin'  
you don't really know about nothin' nothin'  
tell me what you know about them night terrors every night  
5 am, cold sweats wakin' up to the skies  
tell me what you know about dreams, dreams  
tell me what you know about night terrors, nothin'  
you don't really care about the trials of tomorrow  
rather lay awake in the bed full of sorrow  
I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold  
I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good

Pursuit of Happiness – Kid Cudi

* * *

She was tired… so tired. They had been walking along the secluded forest paths for days and she hadn't had a good night's sleep in over a month. Nightmares continually plagued her dreams. Nightmares of war. Her dreams had been warped into a world where strange scenarios played out each night starring her enemies, her nakama, gruesome memories, and death. Fear of what was waiting for her in the darkness of her own mind made her hesitate to close her eyes.

She pledged her help for the war, but she didn't truly understand what war was until it was too late to turn back. It was hard to believe it had only been a year and a half since she started high school. A normal teenage girl who couldn't see ghosts and thought nothing of the afterlife, other than wishing her brother well. Her biggest worries were wasabi, red bean paste, overtly friendly lesbians, and a certain boy with an amusing scowl. These days his scowl only seemed to be hardened and more pronounced. War had made the boy become a man, one who had faced death more times than she wished to recall.

Orihime was interrupted from her thoughts when one of the healers spoke, "Are you alright, Inoue-san?"

She quickly pushed her thoughts aside, perfectly happy for an excuse to let her bubbly side focus her thoughts on something less depressing. She replied enthusiastically, "Hai, hai. It's such a lovely day! I started thinking about what the penguins must be doing up in the North Pole! Are they helping Santa get ready for Christmas or are they deep underground researching how to fly to the moon? I think that penguins would look silly in a space suit, don't you?"

* * *

_Remind me why we're walking again?_

_Not everyone can use shunpo. Not to mention the fact that we're traveling with important supplies, dumbass._

_But King, _the hollow whined, _this is so boring! I'm gonna kill something if we don't get some action soon._

_Is there ever a time when you _don't _want to kill something? Look, just shut up. I'm as bored as you are. Deal._

_Fine! If we don't get a fight today, you're gonna come in here and play with me or I'm gonna take over the body and kill everyone who can't shunpo and blast the supplies ta bits!_

Ichigo groaned. _Why don't you just spar with Zangetsu?_

_Uh... He ain't talkin' ta me right now..._

… _Whatever. I'm not even going to ask. Just because he won't entertain you, doesn't mean you can irritate me instead. _

Ichigo concentrated for a moment while he closed off his mental link to the hollow. He wasn't going to indulge the hollow's boredom, no matter how bored he was himself. It was an uncomfortable feeling- being cut off from his other half. Ichigo didn't like having to resort to blocking him out, but it was apparent that the hollow was not going to give him any peace today.

The weather and forest scenery was fine and all, but it gets dull after the first couple hours. Ichigo chuckled to himself when he realized that he probably wouldn't even mind having Ishida around to bicker with at this point. Rukia was still irritated with him after Ichigo had insulted another one of her monstrous illustrations last night. She and Renji were keeping guard at the rear of the group today. Ichigo looked around for nearby to talk to. 'Inoue must be up towards the front of the group,' he thought. 'There's that one guy from the 12th division... I want to ask him about those horns, but he keeps giving me the strangest look. Ise told me off the last time I started flash stepping around for fun...' Ichigo spotted someone and smirked.

"Waahhh! Ichigo-san! Don't scare me like that." Hanataro nearly fell over in surprise when Ichigo suddenly appeared directly in front of him.

"Sorry, Hanataro." Ichigo wasn't succeeding in suppressing his laughter very well. Several people around them were staring. Ichigo just ignored them, but Hanataro was staring at his feet in embarrassment. "Come on, let's keep walking," Ichigo urged. "There really isn't much to do when we're traveling like this."

Hanataro looked up at the spiky haired teen as he resumed walking. "You probably aren't used to things like this."

"Not really, no. At least not for this long." Ichigo was having trouble figuring out what to talk about with the timid healer. "Do you have any idea how much longer it is until we reach the next location?"

"Ano... Let me find my map." Hanataro shuffled around in his satchel for a moment before producing the map. "Here we go. We're getting pretty close to the bridge. Once we get past the river it should only be another hour. We should get there in time for a late lunch."

Ichigo sighed in relief. Once they got to the next location, he could take it easy for a few days while camp was being set up. He never thought that volunteering for this guard mission would be so boring and irksome. "I'm glad. I don't know how much more of this I could take. A week away from the battlefield and I'm already bored to death," he muttered.

They walked together in comfortable silence for a while until Ichigo spotted the bridge Hanataro mentioned off in the distance. "I'm going to go talk to the captain real quick. See ya in a bit." A second later, Ichigo landed next to Kyouraku-taicho, opposite his fukutaicho.

"Why hello there, Ichigo-kun."

"Hey, Kyouraku-san. I heard that we're getting close to the next location."

"Hai, hai." he said with a chuckle. "You'll be able to let off some steam soon." The captain leaned closer to Ichigo and whispered, "I'm planning a little party later tonight. You're invited to come and drink with me. Your friends are welcome too, but don't tell Nanao-chan."

Ichigo laughed. "Yea, _sparring_ sounds like fun right about now. I can't wait until later."

Nanao rolled her eyes at her captain's antics and kept her nose buried in the book she was reading. Did he really think she couldn't hear exactly what they were saying? If he wanted to spend a night partying after 3 long days of walking, that was more than fine with her. At least she would be able to finish her book in peace tonight.

* * *

"Inoue-san," the healer whined, "I don't think we're in danger from a penguin/kangaroo alliance. The penguins wouldn't like Australia's climate much."

"But that's exactly why they would make perfect allies!" she argued. "The penguins would take over the colder areas and the kangaroo's would take care of the warmer climates!"

The healer sighed in defeat, "I guess you're right, we really should be on our guard."

Orihime closed her eyes and chuckled. The next thing she knew, she was knocked onto the ground after walking into something very solid. "Kurosaki-kun?"

Ichigo scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry Inoue. I guess flash stepping in front of people to surprise them isn't the best thing to do when you're bored, huh." He extended a hand to help her up.

She snapped herself out of her confused state and took his hand. She was quickly pulled up to her feet and laughed nervously as she said, "I wasn't really watching where I was going. I'm sure that surprising people like that is fun though." He fell into step beside her and Orihime desperately tried, once again, to stop the inevitable blush from overcoming her face. She quickly berated herself, 'This is stupid. If he liked me at all, he would have done something about it by now...'

She let out a sigh but was pulled out of her thoughts when he leaned closer to her. She could feel his breath as he whispered, "I know it's been a grueling few days, but Kyouraku invited us to a little get together tonight."

Orihime melted a little inside as she saw Ichigo pull away and look over at her with the biggest smile she had seen from him in over a month. After a moment she realized she was staring at him and quickly replied, "That sounds like fun!"

Ichigo leaned a little closer and replied, "Yea, I can't wait until tonight. I've been bored out of my mind and it sounds like it will be a good time. Just don't tell his fukutaicho, ne?"

Orihime giggled. "Those two make a great team even though they are such polar opposites. That's probably why they work so well together. She'd be too strict without her captain, and he'd be too laid back without her to keep him in line," she stated with a smile.

"She's such a tight-ass, it'd be a riot to see her get drunk and let loose for once."

Orihime brought a finger up to her chin and responded after a moment, "I can't picture what a drunken Nanao-san would even look like..."

"She must be beyond salvation when even _you_ can't imagine her drunk," Ichigo teased.

Orihime smiled up at him as they started to cross the bridge. 'Everything seems to be going so well,' she thought to herself. 'But then why do I have such an uneasy feeling? Something seems out of place.'

"Hanataro said it's only an hour-"

"Wait." Orihime cut him off with a gesture of her hand and stopped walking for a moment. He looked over at her, confused, as she looked up at him and said, "Something isn't right. Either they're already here or-" Orihime's eyes went wide as she felt a large burst of reiatsu and whipped her head up to see the sky begin to open.

* * *

As soon as Ichigo felt the burst of reiatsu used to open the garganta, he shunpo'd away from the group and quickly gathered his energy to go into bankai. Ichigo took a protective position above the bridge. He instantly recognized several espada reiatsu as the garganta began to open. "HURRY UP AND GET ACROSS THE BRIDGE!"

_BAKA! HOW DARE YOU BLOCK ME OFF WHILE YOU'RE ON A MISSION! DO YOU REALIZE HOW DAMN STUPID YOU ARE!_

He cringed slightly at the hollow's yelling- apparently going into his bankai conveniently got rid of the mental block. _I didn't want to deal with your babbling. Shut up, now isn't the best time to be bitching about it. Besides, you should be happy. It looks like we're going to be getting some action after all, ne?_

A quick look around told him that everyone looked ready for whatever was going to happen. All the guards were in position and everyone else was hurrying across the bridge.

"I was just thinking how boring it was out here. You guys should make Aizen invest in some entertainment if this place is more entertaining than Hueco Mundo," Kyouraku joked as the arrancar became fully visible.

"There's certainly a lack of shinigami to play with in Hueco Mundo," Grimmjow sneered as he stepped out.

Ulquiorra just let out a sigh and fired a cero at the captain. "Our goals are no concern of yours." He turned to address the rest of the arrancar, "You know the plan. Execute it quickly or face Aizen-sama's wrath. I do not wish to linger here any longer than necessary." Ulquiorra blindly blocked Kyouraku's shikai then turned to glare at him. "Wait your turn, trash."

"Sorry, I'm just not very patient when it comes to men."

The arrancars scattered and Grimmjow quickly found his favorite play toy. He sonido'd behind the bright haired vizard only to be blocked at the last moment. "Did you miss me so much that you had to come all the way out here and make this ruckus?"

"Bastard," Grimmjow muttered as they exchanged blows and their swords clashed together. "Do you know how boring it is in Hueco Mundo? There aren't many other Shinigami that are worth killing either. When I heard about this mission, I couldn't help but tag along." His smile was a mile wide as their pace started to pick up. "Enough with the foreplay, I wanna go all out. Bring out that mask of yours."

"You're not going to run away this time are you?" Ichigo asked with a smirk.

"TEME! It's not my fault all those other bastards got themselves killed and we had to retreat. Just bring it out and I'll show you what you missed last time," Grimmjow retorted.

"Oh, so you're finally going to release that zanpakutou of yours?" Ichigo countered.

"That's the plan," the Espada confirmed with a cocky grin.

The two broke apart as Ichigo moved to pull on his mask and Grimmjow took his stance for his ___resurrección__._ "Grind, Pantera."

Ichigo attempted to hold back his hollow's laughter, but it proved impossible. "Wow, Grimmjow. I never would have pegged you for the cat type, but then again, you are a pussy," he snickered at the Sexta's resurrección.

Grimmjow growled as he lunged toward the vizard. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'M GONNA KILL YOUR ASS!"

Kyouraku was trying to figure out exactly what was going on here. He counted seven arrancar, three of them ranked Espada. There was no apparent objective that he could see. The one he was fighting seemed just as disinterested in fighting as he was himself. Nanao was staying back and flinging kido spells every which way. Renji was evenly matched at the moment, but the pink-haired Espada seemed to be holding back. The only one released was the one Ichigo was fighting. They seemed to just be biding their time.

Orihime was doing her best to assist the others, but there was only so much she could do without attracting attention to herself. She concentrated on protecting the people gathering around her on the end of the bridge. Suddenly, the 4th espada's reiatsu flared, and all of the arrancars, except for Grimmjow, used sonido to escape their opponents and immediately fire cero's off in multiple directions. She had no choice but to block the green cero headed her way and hope the others could stop the rest. Her santen kesshun managed to block the powerful blast of energy but immediately shattered afterwards. Rukia managed to freeze one of the arrancar's cero before it was fired. Renji moved quickly and fired off his bankai's cannon blast to negate the cero. Nanao managed to stop one with kido and her captain did the same. The other guards weren't able to move quickly enough to stop the cero that managed to hit and obliterate the middle of the bridge. Half the group was still crossing the bridge and several people got caught in the blast. Orihime gasped as she felt Ichigo's reiatsu spike to the highest she had ever felt.

Ichigo had never felt such raw power flowing through him before. Knowing that he couldn't block Grimmjow's attack and keep the cero's from hitting everyone else infuriated him. "This is about me isn't it?"

Grimmjow snorted, "Finally figured that one out, eh?"

Ichigo stopped for a moment before replying in a serious tone, "I've grown tired of this game we play, Grimmjow. I'm tired of all the death. This ends now." Ichigo flung himself at the panther only to be blocked by his blade. He calmly said, "Getsuga Tensho." Grimmjow's eyes grew wide as he took the getsuga point blank. Ichigo wasted no time. He appeared behind a bloody Grimmjow and pierced him through the chest from behind. He withdrew his blade and with a swift kick, Grimmjow crashed into the river below.

Black and gold eyes met green for an instant before Ichigo charged. Negación suddenly enclosed all of the arrancars. The assault ended as quickly as it had started. Ichigo stood outside the Negación and stared at the emotionless espada for a moment before disappearing with a quick shunpo. He landed at the middle of the bridge near Inoue, who was already working to save as many as she could. He surveyed the damage to the bridge littered with carnage. People were carefully moving the injured to the nearby healers. Ichigo could already tell that there were several who were beyond saving. After a few moments, he was interrupted from his thoughts with a firm, "Kurosaki-kun."

"Sorry. What can I do to help?"

"You need to take off your mask. Not everyone can withstand the pressure," she explained. His mask dissipated and his voice returned to normal as he apologized. Orihime kept her eyes focused on her patient as she quietly stated, "Your mask changed again." Ichigo pealed his eyes away from the damage and frowned as he looked over at Inoue. "It's almost completely black on one half now," she continued, not meeting his eyes. "Your reiatsu became much more dominated by your hollow too."

He sat down trying to take in everything that had happened. His hollow was being awfully quiet for once. He sat there immersed in his own thoughts while watching her patient's wounds quickly dissipate as if they had never happened. Once the last of the cuts were finished, she began restoring the lower half of the leg that was blown off. It only took Orihime a few minutes to heal all the near fatal cuts and restore a limb. "Your Souten Kisshun is getting even faster."

Her patient sat up once she released her shield. His face was awestruck as he watched himself wiggle his newly restored toes. He got up, bowed, and thanked her profusely before quickly walking off to help the others. She stared at her lap as she said, "I don't understand why I'm able to sense these attacks before they happen..."

He looked over at her, his eyes filled with concern as he attempted to reassure her, "I think my hollow felt it this time as well but I was blocking him out mentally. With that many espada..." Ichigo trailed off with a sigh and stood up. "I need to talk to him about what happened back there and report to the captain. Later, Inoue." Ichigo took off in a flash to allow her to get back to work.

Ichigo stopped a few feet from the captain and waited for him to finish issuing orders. "What's the plan, taichou?"

"Well, we can't leave the bridge like this but I want to move as many as possible to the site. We're close and it will be easier to take care of the injured there. I'm going to split up the team. I'll stay here and send Nanao-chan with you. I'll split up the guard and the healers and send as many of the others as we can. I guess we'll have to postpone the party." Kyouraku said with a chuckle.

"Yea, about the attack... Grimmjow pretty much confirmed that I was the focus. It seemed like they wanted to test my skills and my limits as far and as quickly as possible."

"More than likely they wanted to do some research on your hollowfication. I don't see any other reason why they would have sent that pink-haired Espada. Our intel says he's ranked 8th and he's a scientific type which is why we don't see him fighting much."

"All those people that died and were injured..."

"It's not your fault. Don't go blaming yourself. That was the only normal attack they did."

"Yea, but they probably only did it to see how I would react."

"Maybe, maybe not. Ichigo-kun... I know it's hard. I think you should take some time to sort things out while we're getting ready to move."

"Yea, I know. I was planning on it. We're on for tomorrow night right?" Ichigo asked with a grin.

Kyouraku smiled. "Of course!"

* * *

Ichigo sat down and propped himself up against a nearby tree. He sat his Zanpakutou across his lap as he concentrated on entering his inner world. A few moments later the world began to melt away and he felt the usual sense of falling into place inside his inner world. He slowly opened his eyes. "WHAT THE HELL?" A pair of black and white eyes was mere centimeters away from him.

"Welcome your worshipfulness!" the hollow greeted him excitedly. "Welcome back to your humble abode!"

"Get away, you freak! You're too close!" he screamed as he kicked the hollow off.

"That wasn't very nice, King... I was just trying to have some fun," the hollow mumbled. He was bent over clutching his stomach but still managing to send Ichigo a potent irritated glare.

"The first couple minutes here are disorienting enough without having you 5 cm from my face," Ichigo muttered as he noticed his inner world was in a normal state, apart from the wind and clouds that were forming.

"Yea, well it was worth it to see you blush, King," the hollow chuckled.

"What? I am not!" he denied as his face immediately began to flush.

"Well if you weren't before, you certainly are now," the hollow retorted with a grin.

Ichigo stood up and huffed, "What the fuck is up with you?"

The hollow's veins began pop out in agitation as he replied, "Oh. So _now_ you want to know what I'm thinking?"

"Yea..." Ichigo admitted sheepishly.

"I think you're the biggest BAKA on the face of the fuckin' PLANET! That damn mental block is uncomfortable and I don't want to get killed because of your dumb ass," he ranted.

"Maybe if you weren't the world's most annoying hollow, I would! It's the only way to get some peace and quiet in my own damn head." Ichigo sighed and shook his head. "Look, can we address the real topic here? What did you want to say so badly?"

"I sensed something was off before the princess did. You could have had another minute's warning," the hollow explained in an irritated tone.

Ichigo reluctantly ground out an apology, "Sorry."

"Damn right, you're sorry! I swear, you two can be so clueless sometimes... Anyways, I know why you're here. I don't really understand what happened either. I talked to Zan, but he doesn't know either."

The zanpakutou suddenly appeared next to the two. "I can talk for myself, thanks."

"Well, it's about time you showed up, Tensa-hime," the hollow retorted.

The zanpakutou took a moment to glare at the smirking hollow before turning and addressing Ichigo, "It almost seemed like you entered a mildly enraged state once the Cero's were fired. While in this enraged state, it appeared as if you two started to meld together slightly causing a temporary spike in power. I'm still not sure exactly what happened or why."

"Well, I got really angry after I sensed the cero's go off, the increased power felt insane, and I started acting almost entirely on instinct. Your theory has me kind of worried though." Ichigo turned to the hollow with his eyebrows furrowed. "We fought for dominance. I won, but just now my reiatsu was much more hollow than normal. It also reminded me of how it felt when you take over. Explain," he demanded.

The albino rolled his eyes, "I don't know, King. I'm just as confused as you are about this, so don't blame me. It felt like having my soul pulled in two different directions at once. Much different feeling than when you normally use the mask."

"I see... This is certainly something to think about," Tensa speculated.

"Do _not_ pull that not-talking-about-it shit again, Zan."

"The bastard is right for once. Spit it out," Ichigo agreed.

"This isn't the time or the place to be discussing this. I need some time to think this over. Until we figure this out, you should try to avoid recreating the scene from earlier. You need to go Ichigo; the group is nearly ready to depart."

"Ugh, great," Ichigo groaned as he turned to address the hollow. "Look, you're not trying anything funny right? The mask changed again and that makes me nervous."

The albino just rolled his eyes and scoffed, "It ain't me, King. Just make sure you have enough time to play with me next time."

Ichigo suppressed a laugh as he replied, "Yea, yea. I'll make sure to have enough time to _play_ with you, if that's what you want to call it."

The hollow was grinning like a maniac as his king returned back to reality.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed it! I appreciate any feedback about the story or my writing! Let me know if I'm doing something stupid so I can fix it for the upcoming chapters. ;p I already have what I think will be the 3rd chapter written out. I should have the 3rd chapter up before the end of the year. 3

Japanese- You probably know most of this stuff, but I'm going to put it down anyways. I'm not going to explain or translate abilities and stuff like that. If I missed something, I'm sure you can find it in google, the bleach wikia, or wherever.

仲間[nakama] - friends/comrades  
はい[Hai] - Yes  
あの[Ano] - Umm  
隊長 [taichou] - captain  
副隊長 [fukutaichou] - vice-captain/lieutenant  
~ね[~ne] - right? isn't it? something along those lines.  
ばか[baka] - idiot  
テメ[teme]- You (bastard, asshole, or something)  
姫[hime]- princess


	2. Chapter 2

I want to thank everyone again for their reviews. I love the feedback. ^_^

DimpledSun and to clarify again- There's going to be a lot of Ichixhime, HichixIchi, and Hichixhime elements. (Especially at the beginning) You also have to consider that Ichigo and his hollow are just 2 parts of the same soul. It really depends on how you look at things. Once the story progresses, it's going to focus on all 3 of them. That's what I mean by a threesome fic. This isn't a one shot or a story where they're gonna sex it up right from the beginning. The story will most likely be fairly long and it's going to illustrate how their relationships are changing. Sorry if there was any confusion about it. Be patient, it'll start to make more sense soon enough.

This chapter should help clear up some of what's going on, but there's not much going on romantically this chapter. The next chapter makes up for it and will be posted very soon, I promise. ;p Interesting little tidbit- when I was planning this chapter out I came up with name for Kyouraku's team by the bridge. It was dubbed Team Song and Dance... I'm still not really sure how my brain thought that one up… The cat I'm house-sitting this week is a riot. She came up several times and started nuzzling the corner of my laptop screen. I really tried to get this out for Christmas but I had a really rough time getting the last half of this done. Next chapter _will_ be out tomorrow.

I was looking at the statistics and was pleasantly surprised at how many people from other countries read the first chapter. Only about half were from the US. Gotta love the internet. 3

**An important note- any reference to a hollow refers to Ichigo's hollow. He still does not posses a name of his own. I apologize for any confusion. The enemies will be referred to as Espada or arrancar.

* * *

Sitting atop his self-proclaimed throne, irritation began to bubble beneath the lord's calm facade when he noticed two missing from the group he had sent out earlier. "Where are Grimmjow and Szayel?" he inquired.

"Your hypotheses were correct, Aizen-sama," Ulquiorra replied. "The boy certainly has potential. He displayed a higher increase than we had even anticipated. However, Grimmjow was severely injured and Szayel will be delayed until he can stabilize the Sexta. I was asked to relay that he predicts a high probability of success."

"I see. Good." Aizen sighed then muttered, "I suppose this will change our plans slightly, but it is unimportant. You may proceed once Grimmjow is stabilized."

"Did you have a replacement in mind, my lord?"

"Ah. I suppose Luppi should be able to be of some assistance to you." he dismissed them with a lazy wave of the hand. The group exited after bowing to their lord. "Don't you have anything better to do, Gin?" Aizen said with a sigh.

Gin emerged from the shadows with his usual foxy smile in place. "Ya seem kinda depressed today, Taicho. Yer lil' games ain't keepin' ya amused?"

Aizen turned to look at his lieutenant with a bored look as an idea came to him. "Go follow Ulquiorra's group without being detected."

Gin's smile grew even larger. "Awww, ain't that cute? Never thought I'd see the day when ya'd go and get attached to one of yer lil' pawns," he teased.

"Ulquiorra is the only Espada that is truly loyal to me. It would be bothersome if he were to perish," he stated as he turned his head back to rest on his hand.

"Don't worry, Taicho. I'll keep an eye on yer pet for ya."

* * *

Ichigo was contemplating the battle earlier that day as he strolled alongside the rest of the group, Tensa Zangetsu still in hand. Nanao's yells were echoing throughout the forest as she reprimanded two of the guards loudly. Less than two weeks away from the battlefield and the enemy had already tracked him down and brought the battle to him. He let out a sigh as he began to recall the strange conversation that had led him to request this mission.

**Flashback: A week and a half prior**

The fighting had subsided and Ichigo was sitting down with some friends when Rukia stood to get up. "I'll see ya later, Ichigo. I need to get my stuff and get ready," she said with a quick wave as she left.

"Getting ready for what?" Ichigo asked, confused.

"Kuchiki and Abarai are being reassigned to a guard mission," Hitsugaya explained.

"Eh? Why would they be reassigned?" Ichigo questioned as he turned to look over at Renji who was still lying on the ground some distance away. Inoue was still working to heal the last of his wounds.

"Seireitei is struggling to keep up with their normal duties as the war continues. We aren't able to give people time off, but we are trying to rotate people off the front lines as much as possible." Hitsugaya explained.

The three teens were looking over at Renji and Inoue when Chad spoke up, "You should volunteer to go with, Ichigo."

"What? Why?" Ichigo turned to question his normally silent friend.

"Everyone needs a break." Chad said with a shrug.

"I'll be fine," Ichigo assured him as he laid back to stare at the sky.

Ishida shook his head and sighed. "Inoue-san needs a break."

Ichigo whipped his head to look at Ishida and sat up on his elbows. "What does that have to do with me?"

Ishida's eyebrows raised high as his eyes went wide. 'His density is legendary, but he's still this stupid?' Ishida thought as he glared at shinigami. 'This has gone far beyond ridiculous at this point.' Closing his eyes, Ishida's palm met his face with a loud smack. He quietly muttered, "Baka... Can you remember a _single_ battle where she hasn't been there with you?"

Ichigo looked over toward Inoue again, who was now talking animatedly with Renji. His eyebrows furrowed as he flipped through his many memories of the battles he had fought over the past year. Inoue had healed him nearly every time, he already knew that much. Now that he looked back on it, he couldn't recall a single one. 'Have I really been that preoccupied? How could she have been in every battle I was? It couldn't have been a coincidence…' he thought to himself. "How-"

"She always requested to be assigned to the same areas as you, boke," Ishida interrupted. He pinched the bridge of his nose as tried to keep calm. "Considering the type of battles you were always involved in, they were always ecstatic to have her extraordinary healing abilities." He opened his eyes and looked back over at Inoue. "I don't think she's had a proper night's sleep in over a month," he added.

Ichigo couldn't disagree with Ishida, she looked extremely tired. "But-"

"Take a break. You need it," Chad insisted.

Ichigo glanced over at Chad. He stared at his lap as he stewed in thought. Maybe a break wouldn't be so bad after all… "You two aren't coming?"

Ishida stood up and brushed off the dirt he had accumulated then stated, "I'm returning to Karakura for a while."

"Sado has already agreed to help me with an upcoming mission." Hitsugaya added.

"Mmm," Chad confirmed as he stood.

"Do you think they still have room?" Ichigo asked Toushirou.

"I don't know. Squad 8 is in charge of the operation." He started to walk away before pausing. "I'm fairly certain Kyouraku-taicho would be happy to have you along though," he relented before he left.

"Right..." Ichigo said to himself while he stared over at Inoue. "I guess I'll talk to Kyouraku-san about it then."

"Take Inoue-san with you," Ishida added before he left in a flash.

Chad gave Ichigo a smile and a thumbs up before walking off.

**End Flashback**

* * *

In the white halls of Las Noches, the sound of Ulquiorra's steps echoed throughout the empty corridor. With his hands placed inside his pockets, he stared at the floor with a blank expression as he continued towards the meeting area. His eyes lifted as he noticed the Octava turning the corner.

"How did it go?" Ulquiorra inquired.

"He's been stabilized for now," Szayel replied as they fell into step besides one another.

"Are you sure this plan of yours will work?"

The Octava turned his head to glare at his superior for a moment before scoffing, "Don't insult my intelligence."

"You will be the one to face Aizen's wrath if it fails," Ulquiorra stated quietly.

"I know that," Szayel snapped. He sighed and added, "They've split into two groups, by the way."

"That won't be a problem," Ulquiorra explained as the pair drew close to their destination. "I'll send the others to lead a separate group as we go after Kurosaki."

"Whatever. Just be sure to do your job." Ulquiorra opened the doors and ignored the appraising look the pink-haired arrancar was giving him. Szayel readjusted his glasses and grinned. "As much as I would love to dissect such a fine specimen, it would be... inconvenient if you died now," he added.

* * *

"You really think the attack was about Ichigo?" Renji sputtered.

"Ichigo-kun said the arrancar he was fighting confirmed it," Kyouraku stated. "It has me a little worried. This group was not meant to handle attacks of multiple Espada."

"We were lucky that it didn't turn out worse," Rukia said softly. Kyouraku nodded in agreement. They stayed silent for a moment before Rukia added, "There's something I don't understand. How could they have known he was here? We've been on the move…"

"It's possible they have something similar to what the 12th division uses to monitor the real world, but there's no way to tell exactly how detailed their information could be. Aizen certainly knew of it and that pink-haired Espada probably has something to do with it as well," Kyouraku mused. "If that's the case, it makes setting up these campsites with barriers that much more important."

A song began playing loudly, "Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight. Get down tonight." Kyouraku searched for his communicator. Rukia and Renji just looked at each other for a moment before they started cracking up. "Why hello there, Nanao-chan. Did you miss my handsome-" he paused and his face grew solemn as he listened. "What?"

* * *

Smoke slowly billowed out of his mouth and dissipated as it floated toward the sky. Akon walked along the forest paths, his self-modified mp3 player blaring his favorite tunes. 'I don't understand why Taicho insisted it had to be me and not one of the other officers, but it's nice to get out of the lab for once…' Akon glanced at his cigarette before taking one last drag. He realized he was already running low as he pulled another cigarette out of the carton. "Damnit," he groaned as he lit up.

He saw Kurosaki stiffen out of the corner of his eye as Akon sensed his reiatsu fluctuate. Apparently the Inoue girl had noticed something as well. They stared at each other, several yards apart. Akon cocked an eyebrow. 'The hell? I didn't sense anything out of the ordinary…' The ryoka nodded at each other and Ichigo flash stepped over to inform Nanao of something. Ichigo locked eyes with Akon for a moment before flash stepping over to talk to Inoue quietly. Nanao ordered the group to stay on their guard but continue as she flipped open her communicator.

'How in the world did Kurosaki of all people notice something I can't? I was under the impression that he had sensory capabilities similar to Zaraki,' Akon thought to himself, intrigued. With a quick shunpo, Akon was next to the teens. "Sorry for interrupting, but what is going on?" he inquired. They stared at Akon as he took a drag on his cigarette before letting it drop to the ground to put it out with his foot.

The two teens exchanged a glance before Inoue began, "There's going to be another attack. It feels like a larger group this time. It seems like they are splitting into two groups, most likely heading towards the other group as well..."

"And how do you know all of this exactly?" Akon asked incredulously.

"Ano…"

"Can we talk about this another time?" Ichigo drawled as he cut off Orihime. "They're coming." A burst of reiatsu signaled the beginning of the second attack of the day. The garganta opened and 7 arrancar could be seen. Ulquiorra, Szayel, and 5 others he had never seen before. He knew that he'd be fighting one of the two Espada; the question was who was going to handle the other. Three of the lower ranked male arrancar charged the group and the guards met them sword to sword.

"What's keeping you, Kurosaki Ichigo?" the Cuatro inquired.

"I might ask you the same." He replied. He kept his face calm as his mind raced, trying to figure out how he was supposed to manage to fight the Cuatro Espada without the risk of using his mask.

The four others moved off even quicker that the first bunch. The two female arrancars went directly for Orihime as the two espada sped off toward Ichigo. Nanao caught the blonde female with a kido spell and moved to block the other but Orihime deployed her Santen Kesshun to shield them both. "Leave this one to me and take care of the others," Orihime stated with a fierce look as she launched Tsubaki after the black haired female.

Akon caught the Octava's hand before he had a chance to strike Ichigo from behind. The espada's face was full of surprise as Akon tossed him back. "I heard you were the scientific type, but attacking someone from behind is just low," Akon said offhandedly.

"I don't recall you from the previous battle," the Espada said as he stood and brushed himself off.

"No, I don't suppose you would have noticed me. I have very specific orders from my captain, you see. However, I know _all_ about you, Szayel Aporro Grantz. Octava Espada and head administrator of Hueco Mundo's lab."

"Oh, well. This _is_ a surprise. I didn't realize that the shinigami had much information on me," Szayel sneered.

"It's a strange coincidence that I'm sent on this mission and you show up in the first attack. I've been looking forward to a good fight," Akon taunted as he prepared to attack.

Ulquiorra held a tired disinterested expression as he traded strikes with the teen. Ichigo was getting irritated at the bastard's complete lack of emotion. He launched a Getsuga toward the arrancar who simply brushed it away with a flick of his hand. "This fight is pointless unless you bring out your mask," he stated. Ichigo stared at the Espada in shock. He didn't want to have to resort to using his mask, but he didn't have much of a choice if the Espada could withstand his getsuga that easily.

_He's not even trying to kill you King. He wants you to use the mask for some reason. They're fuckin' with us._

_Yea, but what the fuck am I supposed to do? At this rate, we'll be here all week. _

_I don't know, but I don't like it,_ the hollow said with a growl.

Akon flew past as Ulquiorra charged him from the front. Ichigo prepared to block Ulquiorra when he felt something prick his shoulder. A second later, Ichigo's head felt like it was trying to tear itself into pieces. He heard his hollow's cries as his mask began to form over his head. He held onto awareness for a few moments as clutched his head in pain, but quickly melted away into unconsciousness.

"Thank you, Szayel," Ulquiorra said automatically then began to address the boy. "I'm glad you've finally decided to join us."

"What the… hell… was that?" the hollow managed to ask, still clutching his head in pain.

"What? Don't you like it?" Szayel teased.

"It feels like I got run over by a truck. Then it decided to turn around and stick a crowbar through my skull..." he ground out.

"Duly noted. Well, you're one of a kind. So this is its trial run," Szayel explained, observing the vizard.

"You are Kurosaki's hollow, are you not?"

He looked up at Ulquiorra and smirked. "You're a real emotionless prick."

Ulquiorra's face fell slightly at the hollow's remark. A bright orange light suddenly appeared and exploded near Ulquiorra's feet as he was suddenly knocked away. Akon sprang up simultaneously to deliver a swift kick into Szayel's gut. Tsubaki was doing his best to keep the Cuatro occupied by darting around and rapidly firing bursts toward him. Orihime appeared and multiple triangle shields began to form and connect to erect a barrier around herself and Ichigo's body.

Orihime did a quick inspection of Ichigo and noticed no major injuries, but his reiatsu had completely changed. 'So his hollow is in control now…' she thought to herself. "Ano…" She paused and stared at him wide-eyed as he faced her. His eyes had changed but the mask was acting abnormally. The half formed mask floated around slightly in front of his face and the design was swirling as the mask refused to solidify. "K-Kurosaki-kun?"

"Come on, Hime. You know I ain't him," he chuckled.

Her eyebrows shot up and her mouth fell open slightly in surprise at his nickname for her. She didn't think that his hollow would even know who she was, let alone have a nickname for her… Then again, she knew very little about Ichigo's hollow. "What should I call you then?"

"I appreciate the help, princess, but you might not want to be here right now," the hollow stated with a weak smile. "Not exactly feelin' very stable right now."

"What happened…?"

"The pink bastard injected us with somethin' and I was forced to take over," the hollow explained. Ulquiorra's reiatsu suddenly spiked and green reiatsu rained down upon the dome-like barrier. "Well that can't be good," he muttered. Orihime immediately recalled Tsubaki before he could sustain any critical injuries.

Ulquiorra suddenly appeared in front of the dome in his resurrección form. "I have grown tired of your persistent dawdling," he stated as he pointed a finger toward the dome and charged a black cero. Ichigo's hollow immediately stood in front of Orihime, who was channeling her energy into the barrier. "Cero obscuras," he muttered as he fired the cero at the barrier. It screeched as it exploded against the barrier. The hollow extended a hand toward the point of impact on the barrier in an attempt to reinforce it. Orihime was trembling with the effort and energy required to maintain the barrier. Cracks appeared, but the barrier withstood the blast.

Moments later, Ulquiorra swiftly shattered it with his glowing green weapon. Orihime dropped to her knees and Ichigo's hollow wasted no time- immediately attacking the Espada with a growl. "Oh? Did we finally manage to irritate the emotionless Batspada?" the hollow taunted with a grin as they began wounding each other.

"Now for phase two…" Szayel said as he appeared behind Orihime and lifted her by the hair. She screamed and attempted to free herself from the Espada's hold. Ichigo's hollow whipped his head around, earning him a kick to the gut from his opponent, sending him away from the girl. Ulquiorra launched his weapon toward the group of bystanders then charged a cero toward the vizard. As his weapon exploded, instantly evaporating a portion of the group, Ichigo's body slammed into the ground. The hollow let out a fearsome roar as Ulquiorra fired the cero. The mask quickly hardened and encased his head. Between the two newly formed horns, he quickly charged powerful cero of his own which collided and overpowered Ulquiorra's.

The Cuatro was immediately kicked to the ground and impaled by Tensa Zangetsu. The hollow proceeded to grab Szayel by his hair a second later, and threw him into the woods. Inoue simply stared at his new form. Two lines ran across both eyes now, the mask now wrap[ed around his head and had two symmetrical horns sticking out of either side. She could not find his eyes behind the mask, just a pure dark void. He looked at her for a moment before appearing over Ulquiorra. The hollow began to charge a cero.

"You far surpass all expectations at every turn of events. If I cannot defeat you in this form then my life no longer has any purpose. Do it," Ulquiorra beckoned.

Before the hollow got a chance to fire his cero, he was caught within a quick kido. "Yare, yare. I really didn't think I'd have to get involved… I can't let precious Pet-san here bite the dust though," Gin said as he looked at the struggling hollow. "That's certainly an interesting form, kid." He glanced at Ulquiorra for a moment before removing the sword impaled in his stomach, tossing it aside and signaling the negación.

The hollow's reiatsu spiked as he watched his enemies float away into the sky. One by one, the bars of yellow light began to shatter slowly, as the hollow struggled to break free. Orihime quickly strode toward the struggling hollow. "Kurosaki-kun?" she asked tentatively as she approached him. The hollow looked at her for a moment before continuing his struggle, itching to attack the escaping Espada. When only two bars remained, Orihime had made up her mind. Tsubaki popped out of her hairpin. "Can you do it?" she asked.

"Yea. The timing will be a little difficult, but it's nothing we can't handle," he stated with a confident smirk. Another bar cracked and dissolved as the hollow let out a roar. "Now!" the faerie yelled.

"Koten Zanshun, I reject," Orihime chanted as Tsubaki sped off toward the hollow. A split second after the hollow broke free, Tsubaki sliced through one of the horns of the hollow's mask. The mask cracked and broke apart as Ichigo's body crashed into the ground. Orihime ran over to Ichigo. She sat next to him and leaned over him to carefully roll him over. She carefully pried the final bit of the mask from his face and cupped his face gently as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Inoue-san! Please hurry!" Nanao interrupted anxiously. "Akon-sanseki has lost a hand and is in critical condition! We lost nearly all of our healers in the explosion and most everyone has sustained heavy damage from the blast." Orihime looked down at an unconscious, mildly injured Ichigo and said tiredly, "Hai, Hai. I understand," She reached into her bag and popped a pill into her mouth before heading off to begin emergency operations.

* * *

A few notes on the fighting- Ulquiorra is in his first release. I toned down the destructive capabilites of his lance quite a bit due to this. While Ichigo and his hollow get the new mask and mask design- it's not exactly like it was in the manga either. No hole in the chest, no real changes other than the mask. And like I said in the beginning, there's been a war going on for about a year. Like I said before- Don't expect the frail little Orihime in this fic. That was Loly and Menoly if you missed it and Orihime kicked Loly's ass. She still dislikes fighting and is still mainly a healer, but she's no longer going to hold back once she or her allies are attacked. She had a chance to get some REAL training before the war began and has gained a lot of experience, so she has some impressive new abilities now.

I don't think its ever stated that Akon is the 3rd seat in the 12th division, but it makes sense to me and I honestly can't see anyone else in the position. It's a real shame we don't get to see more of him in the manga. =/

I'm sorry that Ichigo's hollow doesn't have a name yet. I hope it wasn't too confusing.

Please review and let me know if anything didn't make sense to you! Thanks for reading! 3

* * *

Japanese for the chapter-

ボケ[Boke] - Idiot/airhead. Similar to baka.  
やれ やれ[Yare, yare] - My, my. Oh well. Something along those lines.  
~三席[~sanseki] - 3rd seat (officer)


	3. Chapter 3

"Please, Inoue-sama. I beg you, go get some rest. Everyone will survive until morning. If you keep this up- you won't. I can finish up," the only remaining healer pleaded.

"Hai... I guess you are right." Orihime wished they wouldn't address her that way, but she no longer had the energy to care. She recalled her faeries back into her hairpins and thanked them mentally for their help. She felt awful for overworking Ayame and Shun'o. The rest of the faeries helped any way they could. Tsubaki ran messages for her and arranged a steady stream of patients for her. Baigon and Hinagiku carried bandages to people who weren't in critical condition. Lily flew around keeping tabs on everyone's condition.

"You haven't been getting much sleep the past week have you?" she heard from behind her. Orihime turned around to see the 8th squad's fukutaicho, glaring at her.

"Hehe... Well, there has been a lot to do," she replied nervously.

"Get some rest, a _full _night's rest." Orihime just stared at Nanao and suppressed a giggle as the fukutaicho adjusted her glasses in a manner that reminded her of Ishida-kun. "That is an order, Inoue-san. A healer of your caliber should know that they need to take care of themselves as well as their patients."

Orihime gave Nanao an irritated look. "It is hard enough to fall asleep without having to fret about whether or not unhealed patients will make it through the night."

"I understand that, and I apologize for our lack of healers, but I can tell that you've been overusing those energy pills. Unohana-taichou should have explained why you can't overuse them. You should avoid using them altogether if possible. One is allowable and two in one day is for extreme emergencies _only_. They do give you a bit of extra energy, but they also allow your soul to dip into its vital reserves. More than two is downright dangerous!"

"Hai, Hai, I understand, Ise-san." Orihime brushed her off and gave her a quick mock-salute before dragging herself to wherever everyone was supposed to sleep for the night. 'She must be the one running the camp tonight. She gets so carried away when she doesn't have her captain's personality to counterbalance her own,' she thought to herself.

Orhime wandered around a bit trying to find where she could find something soft to pass out on. It felt good to stretch her legs after several hours of healing. She finally managed to stumble across the large room full of sleeping people. "Where can I get a futon, blanket, and pillow?" She mumbled to the person on guard duty, her eyes beginning to droop.

"Ah! Inoue-sama!" he exclaimed, bolting upright out of his chair to bow to her. "Gomenasai... We've already laid out all the futons and pillows we have. You're going to have to find someone to share a bed with tonight. There are some blankets over in the corner," the guard explained as he pointed in the direction of the blankets.

Orihime looked at him pleadingly, "But I don't think I know any of the people here..."

"Ahh... I'm sorry Inoue-sama. We only have about half of the futons with us and more than half the group. There are several people sharing already..."

She sighed, "It's alright, I understand. It has been one hell of a day, ne?"

The guard looked down at the floor solemnly, "Hai... We lost so many. Two attacks in one day as well as the group getting split to repair the bridge. I can't imagine what the losses would have been like without you here, Inoue-sama." He looked up at her and gave her a weak smile. "I'm sure you'll have no problem finding someone to share a bed with. Most all of us owe you our lives in some way or another."

"I try my best. I need to find a bed before I pass out though. I do believe I overdid it a bit today," she said with a small giggle. "Oyasuminasai," she gave him a small bow before walking past him.

The guard quickly bowed deeply, "Oyasuminasai, Inoue-sama."

Orihime stood for a minute trying to find Rukia amongst the sea of sleeping people. 'I wonder what it would be like to sail across them on a boat.' She entered a daze for a moment, picturing the scene. At first it was a happy, bright, and sunny day on a sailboat, floating above all the sleeping people. She wore a white sailing outfit and was sitting on the side of the boat gazing out over the edge at all the people. The sun was beautiful as it sank into a sunset. Stars came out as it got darker and the moon was shining down, but when she turned to look back to the people below- the scene had turned into something more gruesome. The people were hanging onto whatever they could find and they were freezing in the water. Several bodies were floating lifelessly in the water amongst the people clutching onto floating chunks of ship. She quickly shook her head in an attempt to erase the image from her mind.

She took another look around the room not noticing anyone familiar until she saw a familiar spiky orange off in a far corner of the room, away from the others. 'Maybe Kurosaki-kun knows where Rukia is...' She went to grab a blanket and tip toed over to him as quietly as possible.

Orihime knelt down and poked Ichigo in the shoulder. His orange hair caught the moonlight coming in from the window as he buried his head deeper into his pillow mumbling something incoherent. Orihime smiled weakly, 'He looks so cute when he's sleeping. I hate to wake him...' She softly shook his shoulder and whispered, "Kurosaki-kun." Still no reply. "Kurosaki-kuuun."

"Hanase, watermelons..." he murmured.

She clamped her hand over her mouth and tried to suppress a giggle. 'Is he having a nightmare about watermelons? I wonder what watermelon aliens would look like...' She moved closer to his ear so she wouldn't wake anyone else. She shook him gently and spoke a little louder, "Kurosaki-kuuuuun."

He sat up in a jolt, eyes wide, "Nani! You can't- Inoue? What's going on, are we under attack again?" He started looking around for Zangetsu; interrupted when he heard her start to laugh. He stared at her, stupefied, as she fell back onto the floor trying to suppress another fit of giggles, only half succeeding.

"I don't know… You seemed to think…we were getting attacked…by watermelons," she managed to say between fits of laughter; tears running down her face.

Ichigo scowled, looked away and blushed in embarrassment. "So then why did you wake me up?"

Inoue wiped her tears and managed to calm her laughter. "There aren't enough futons for everyone so I was wondering if you knew where Rukia was so I could share with her," she explained. "I don't really know anyone else in this group..."

He lay back down and pulled the covers back over himself. "Uhh... She and Renji got assigned to the group on the other side of the river. You didn't notice?"

"Oh," she said as her face fell slightly. "I guess I've been kinda busy, ne?"

"Yea," he said quietly. "You must be beat, you look like you're about to pass out."

"Hehehe. I feel like it too..." She gazed serenely out the window for a moment. The moon looked so beautiful tonight. "I almost feel like I could float away and swim around in the night sky along with all the little green men-"

"How many of those pills have you taken today?" he asked her, his eyes already starting to droop again.

"Oh... One this afternoon," she said, putting a finger up to her chin to ponder. "And two tonight, I think."

He sighed, "Just… come here." He scooted over and lifting up his blanket. "You're hallucinating from sleep deprivation. There's not a lot of room but at least we can keep warm."

Her cheeks felt as if they were burning when she saw his bare chest and toned abs. He was sleeping in only his hakama. She bit her lip and quickly tore her eyes away and she stared intensely at the hands that were now fidgeting in her lap. "Demo-"

"No demo's. Hurry up and get in, sleepyhead. You're letting all the warm out. It's cold and I want to get back to sleep... Unless you'd rather share a bed with some random person you don't know," he muttered.

"No..." she admitted as she looked back up to his eyes; they were glimmering a beautiful golden brown in the moonlight.

"Then come 'ere," he growled. She squeaked as he grabbed her around the waist with one arm and dragged her under the covers. He pulled her down and turned her so her back was resting against his chest. "See. Much better…" he drawled sleepily as he adjusted his pillow so they could share. He noticed the extra blanket she had brought with her and exclaimed, "Yosh! Another blanket! It's so damn cold tonight..." He reached over, threw it across them both, and then settled back down. "Mmmm." He snuggled up against her, put his arm around her waist and pulled her a little closer still. "So warm," he murmured next to her ear, already starting to drift off again.

Orihime was still frozen in shock. Warm? She was on fire. Maybe she had passed out and was already dreaming. There was no way this was actually happening. The shock wore off after a minute and she began to relax and simply bask in the moment. The feeling of him, flush against her. His arm wrapped around her, holding her close. The feel of his warm reiatsu was quickly lulling her to sleep. "Kurosaki-kun?" she murmured.

Barely awake, he only managed a simple, "Hmm?" as he nuzzled into her neck.

A shiver trickled down her spine as she felt his breath on her neck, but she already felt like she was floating. Drifting off as sleep was claiming her. "Arigatou..."

"Just sleep... Hime," he whispered in a sleepy daze.

* * *

'It was so warm... It was freezing last night. Something smells... like... flowers? Huh?' Ichigo slowly opened his eyes and leaned his head back to look up toward the window. 'Looks like it's going to be a nice day today.'

"I don't want red bean paste... on my strawberry..."

'What the hell?' Ichigo snapped his head down. His eyes went wide in shock as he saw Orihime lying halfway on his chest; belatedly noticed his arm wrapped around her, holding her there. "Whaaa?"

"Needs wasabi..."

His eyebrows popped up in amusement. 'Wait, wasn't she talking about strawberries a second ago? Wasabi strawberries? I knew she has a weird sense of taste but-'

"Mmmm... Wasabi strawberry pancakes..." she murmured against his bare chest, snuggling into it more. Ichigo couldn't help but grin a little. Inoue was so warm and looked so cute. 'Wait. Cute? What the hell? Wait a minute, more importantly why is she sleeping on me?'

_Come on, King. Don't play stupid. You remember._

_Shut up! I just woke up, give me a minute._

_ZANNNNN! WHY DO WE HAVE TO HAVE SUCH A BAKA AS KING! _the hollow whined.

_Emotions have never been his strong suit, _the zanpakutou tried to explain.

_King's not good at nuthin'! Name one thing he's good at!_

Tensa Zangetsu sighed before retorting,_ Beating your ass?_

_TEME! Come 'ere you lil' prick! I liked you better as a silent old man! Get off that damn pole and say that to my fuckin' face, I DARE YA!_

_SHUT THE FUCK UP! It's too early in the morning for this shit..._

Ichigo glared up at the ceiling. 'Kami help me... I must be one crazy bastard to end up with these two freaks inside my head.' He felt the hollow laugh within his inner world.

He tried to remember what exactly happened last night. 'I was having some crazy ass dream about watermelons attacking us at the beach and nabbing the people with their vines; when Inoue woke me up... She asked where Rukia was... I told her to just sleep with me... but, It's so fuzzy after that...' He looked back down at the girl lying across his chest, frowning slightly. 'She still looks so worn out. Probably spent the whole night healing again. She must not have woken me up until about 2 or 3 in the morning. I fell asleep around 9 last night, right after we made it to camp... It looks like she hasn't slept in days,' he thought with a frown.

Ichigo continued to lie there for a while, staring at the ceiling, perfectly content to simply enjoy being alone, comfortable, and warm with Inoue, feeling her breath on his chest while she slept. He was happy she agreed to share a futon with him instead of someone else. He couldn't pin down exactly what he was feeling. He just felt so warm and content with her there. She was always there for him, no matter the circumstances. Ichigo looked down at her and wondered what ever possessed her to get involved with all of this craziness. She could be at home, sleeping in her own bed, leading a normal life. There was nothing concretely tying her into this war. He chuckled softly as he realized that she would never let her friends go off and fight a war without her there to protect them in any way she could. Four humans fighting against the odds in a great war of the afterlife...

They lay there quietly until Orihime started to move around and mumble. "Don't go... Please." Ichigo wondered what she was dreaming about now. "Don't want... alone..." He looked down at her as she started shaking slightly.

"Inoue, wake up. You're having a bad dream." Ichigo shook her a little. "Inoue. Come on, wake up." He repeated it a little louder, but she just mumbled, "No... Don't leave me... Please." and holds onto him even tighter. "Inoue, I'm right here, it's just a nightmare." He tried to pry her off his chest, but she had a death grip on him. "Orihime, wake up!"

She jerked awake, staring at the blurry chest in front of her. "Huh?" Blinking her eyes a few times, she looked down and noticed her grip around Ichigo. She flushed red and let go.

"Shhh, I'm sorry I woke you, but you were having a nightmare."

Orihime glanced up at him with wide eyes. "Eeeh? I'm sorry!" She tried to move away from him but he wasn't letting her move.

"Don't apologize, just go back to sleep," he said softly.

"But... it's already light out."

"Yea and you didn't get to sleep until some ungodly hour. When was the last time you slept a whole night?"

Moving past her mortification, she put her head back down on his shoulder and laid her arm across him again. He had such a spicy masculine scent that made her head spin. It reminded her of cinnamon. Orihime cleared her mind and tried to remember what she was supposed to be saying. "Ano... I've been sleeping a couple hours every night, but I keep having these terrible nightmares. Some nights I can't bring myself to close my eyes because I'm afraid of what's waiting for me."

"Inoue..."

His eyes were full of concern when she looked up at him, and it made her heart race. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She set her head back down on his shoulder and simply lost herself in the sensation. His immense reiatsu felt so comforting to her. The warmth of it invaded her senses and relaxed her like a hot sauna. Orihime was in heaven and intended to enjoy it while it lasted.

Ichigo really had no idea what to say but she seemed content being held. Her heart seemed to be slowing down and she seemed to relax a bit. Hopefully, she could go back to sleep soon. They lay there like that for what seemed like hours before she broke the silence, "I think that was the longest I've slept in about a month... Thank you, Kurosaki-kun. I think you kept the nightmares away. I wasn't really having a nightmare earlier. I just..."

He waited a few moments before urging her to continue, "What?"

She looked up at him for a moment before looking away again. "It's nothing..."

"Come on, you can tell me anything," he insisted.

"It's silly! Don't worry about it." Having his bare chest so close was doing nothing to help her contain her blush.

"If you don't want me to worry then just tell me," he reasoned.

"Demo..."

"No more demo's. Just tell me."

"Fine! I was dreaming that you got assigned a mission to go into Hueco Mundo," she said, trying to keep the embarrassment out of her voice.

"Huh?"

"I dreamt that everyone was sent to Hueco Mundo and I wasn't allowed to go with you. I was going to have to stay behind… all alone."

Ichigo shook his head. "That'd never happen. Seireitei can order whatever the hell they want, but I would never accept any order that left you alone by yourself. We may be allied with Soul Society, but they know that they can't just order us around against our will. I made that clear to them when this whole thing started. We would help, but we still get to make our own choices about how to help."

"Oh... I didn't think about that." She dared a quick peek at his face only to see him smiling down at her. "I really don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep though. Everyone else is already up. We should go get some breakfast."

He really didn't want to get up, but unfortunately his stomach was grumbling in agreement. He reluctantly nodded and let her get up. She gathered up and folded the blankets and left them on the futon. He picked up the shredded, bloody top half of his Shihakusho from the corner and threw it over his shoulder. Inoue caught a glimpse of it. "How... It's torn to pieces! I didn't heal you last night."

"The cuts weren't very deep. Once I came to, I wrapped myself up. You seemed busy.

"Well, I can't say that I wasn't busy, but it must have been painful. You know that stuff like that would only take me a second..."

"I didn't want to bother you. Don't worry about it. Let's go get some breakfast." He started walking towards the door. She dropped the subject and quickly fell into step beside him.

He looked over at her with a hint of amusement in his eyes. "By the way, do you really eat Strawberry pancakes with wasabi?"

"Eeehhh?"

* * *

Japanese for the chapter-

お休みなさい[Oyasuminasai] - Good night (formal)  
離せ[Hanase] - Let (a person) go. UNHAND HER, FOUL BEAST!  
何[Nan/Nani] - What?  
でも[Demo] - but  
よし[Yosh! (Yoshi but the i is often dropped)] - Good! Sweet!  
死覇装[Shihakushou] - Soul reaper uniform  
袴[Hakama] - pants portion

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this bit of fluff! ^_^ If you read the 2nd chapter before this was posted, I did some editing on it and added a couple things if you want to give it a quick reread. Merry Half-way-between-Christmas-and-New-Years-Eve Day! Probably going to take a little break after this writing and editing binge I've been on. My birthday is the 2nd and with New years eve coming up, so I'm going to be busy. Enjoy your 2 chapters and have a fun New Years Eve all! I'll try my best to update soon! See you next year!

Thanks for reading and I'd love to read your comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**8 months ago**

Orihime sang one of her favorite tunes as she skipped to the grocery store. Inspiration struck before she had begun making dinner and it was imperative that she buy some cranberry sauce for her newly invented ramen recipe. She was busy debating the pros and cons of making her own sauce versus buying canned when she felt a massive burst of reiatsu nearby and slowly came to a stop. A moment later she sensed Kurosaki-kun exiting his human form, going straight into his bankai as he headed toward the attack. She realized the burst of hollow reiatsu had come from the direction of the middle school and immediately set off toward the school.

Several minutes later, she found herself at the edge of a soccer field and spotted a dark haired shinigami leaning over a familiar orange head on the ground. Her eyes went wide in fear as she sprinted across the field to them. She slowed slightly as she noticed the man was already preoccupied with a healing kido. She walked up from behind the strange man and paused a moment to catch her breath. "Ano..." she began timidly. "What happened to Kurosaki-kun?"

The man stiffened before replying, "Oh. You can see me…"

"Hai... I don't remember seeing you around Karakura before, who are you?" she asked as she moved closer to try and catch a glimpse of the shinigami's face.

He glanced over his shoulder for a brief moment before returning his focus back to healing. "I might ask you the same question, pretty lady."

Orihime blushed slightly at the older man's compliment. She took a few moments to observe the man's healing abilities before realizing his outfit was a bit abnormal. He was not a 4th division member. "Please tell me what happened so I can heal him," she insisted.

It took a second before the man realized what she had said and ceased his kido. "Oh! You must be Inoue Orihime! I've heard a lot about you... The idiot got ambushed and let his guard down. I think one of those pseudo-arrancars had a poisoning ability."

Orihime sat beside the man as she began her healing incantation, "Shun'o, Ayame. Souten Kisshun. Watashi wa kyozetsu suru." Her faeries soared out from her hairpins and the transparent orange shield quickly formed. "What division are you from?" she persisted. "You seem familiar somehow…"

"Uhh... About that…" He let out a sigh before continuing, "Well, I guess there's no point hiding it anymore… I'm Kurosaki Isshin, Ichigo's father."

She turned to look at him in surprise, finally getting a good look at the man's face. "Nani? Kurosaki-san? You're a shinigami? I- I had no idea…"

"Yea, well… Neither does he." He said pointing at the unconscious teen.

She turned back to look at her friend as she took a moment to process what his father had just revealed to her. Kurosaki-kun was shinigami/human hybrid? His father hadn't bothered to mention this important fact to him before? She noticed the last of Ichigo's cuts had already closed. "Can you reject the poison from his system, Shun'o, Ayame?"

"It shouldn't be a problem, but it may take some time," Shun'o responded.

"That's quite the ability you have there," Isshin observed. "Your hairpins are quite similar to a zanpakutou. Have they always materialized like that?"

"Hai," she replied reluctantly.

"To put it simply, that is the most impressive healing ability I have ever seen," he continued. "You can really reject anything that has happened to the person?"

"There hasn't been anything I've been unable to heal as long as I'm given enough time," she murmured, keeping her focus on her shield. Orihime hoped that the man didn't expect her to keep his identity a secret from his son. She didn't want to have to be the one to tell Kurosaki-kun either.

Several minutes later, Isshin broke the awkward silence that had fallen between them. "I'm sorry I couldn't save him."

"Huh?"

"Your brother... He was all you had and I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more for him."

"It's... alright," she said. "I'm sure you did your best and I've gotten by. I'm just glad that Kurosaki-kun was able to help him find peace when he was turned into a hollow. It's still hard to imagine all of the hollows in the world were once human." Orihime paused a moment but smiled as she continued, "These hairpins were actually a gift from my brother. At first I was unable to remember what had happened the night he came after me, but my powers began to develop shortly after and the memories returned. Sometimes I wonder what all the hougyouku affected."

"It's a mysterious thing, the hougyouku..."

"The poison has been removed from his system," Shun'o announced. "I'm not sure when he will regain consciousness, however." Orihime quietly thanked her faeries as they returned to her hairpins.

"Thank you for taking such good care of my son."

"N-no problem at all, Kurosaki-san," she insisted, blushing and flailing her arms erratically. "It was the least I could do."

Isshin popped up in an energetic fashion, pointed to himself emphatically as he proudly declared, "You can call me Papa Isshin! Feel free to stop by the house anytime!" He bent over to heft his son effortlessly over his shoulder and turned to flash a smile at the young healer. She stared at him for a moment, bewildered by his sudden change before he added, "I have a long conversation ahead of me tonight. You should hurry home before it gets any darker."

Orihime noted the sun setting behind the energetic man before coming to her senses. "Hai… Good night, ano… Isshin-san?" she replied, hoping that he would be happy with the compromise. Orihime didn't feel comfortable calling the man something like Papa Isshin, no matter what the man had said.

"Good night, Orihime-chan!" he yelled in a sing song tone as she watched him bound off into the sunset.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to try them with a bit of wasabi?" she asked, offering him the wasabi.

"Errr… No thanks. Uhh… Eating wasabi in the morning makes me sick." Ichigo had been unable to do anything the last couple minutes but stare at the girl. She hummed a familiar tune as she smothered her strawberry pancakes in wasabi and syrup. He simultaneously felt sick and amused as he watched Inoue eat her breakfast, quickly deciding to focus on eating his own pancakes before he lost his appetite. He should have known she was serious about the wasabi, but even he hadn't expected her to cover her pancakes so excitedly with the stuff. The green wasabi looked so strange against the red of the strawberries.

"Awww! That's too bad," she pouted. "It's really tasty!" She took a few more bites of her pancakes before working up the courage to ask, "Ano… Kurosaki-kun, does your hollow have a name?"

"No," he paused. "Why do you ask?"

"Well… I met him yesterday but I didn't know what to call him."

"I don't know. He seemed to think he didn't need a name if he didn't have a body," Ichigo said before taking another bite. "He did say he was Zangetsu once… but it didn't make any sense to me."

"So what do you call him?"

"Uhh… Usually something like, teme, bastard, or hollow."

"That's not very nice, Kurosaki-kun," she scolded with a frown.

"He tried to take over my body!" he defended. "Besides, who knows what the bastard would do if left to his own devices..."

"Seemed nice enough to me..."

"He was nice?" Ichigo asked her incredulously. "Wait a minute. How close did you get to him anyways?" His eyebrows knitted together, concerned about what all his hollow did while in control of his body. He set down his fork and began to stare at it intensely.

"Well, I was worried when he took over so suddenly and your hollow seemed like he was in a lot of pain. I didn't want Ulquiorra to hurt you, so I attacked him."

Ichigo's mouth hung open in surprise. "You attacked Ulquiorra?"

"I had to do something. I distracted him so I could construct a barrier around the two of us. It didn't take long for Ulquiorra to get irritated and fired a cero at us in his resurrección form. His resurrección is kind of like a bat by the way. I don't think I would have been able to keep up the barrier without your hollow's help reinforcing it though…"

"How in the world did he reinforce it?"

"Umm… I think he just poured his reiatsu directly into the shield. I'm not sure exactly. Anyways, your hollow started attacking Ulquiorra but got distracted when Szayel attacked me. Ulquiorra kicked your hollow and blew up part of the group with this green glowing weapon he had. That's when your mask hardened and your hollow went berserk."

"Huh? What happened with my mask?"

"Oh… well, at first it was kind of floating and drooping over one side of your… or his face? It covered your whole head and had horns. It was white with 2 black stripes down either eye." She illustrated what she was saying by drawing two lines down both of her eyes with a finger.

Ichigo clenched his fists and reluctantly asked, "He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No, he attacked the Espada but made sure to protect me. Ichimaru-san popped up out of nowhere to hit you with a kido and escaped before you could kill Ulquiorra. Your hollow began to break out of the kido and seemed like he wanted to go after them even though they were already encased in the negación. I timed Tsubaki to break the mask as soon as he broke out of the kido," she finished explaining.

"I'm just glad you weren't hurt," Ichigo said, finally able to look her in the eyes again. Orihime swore that look was going to be the death of her. Her heart began to race erratically for the second time that day, but this time she couldn't tear her eyes away from his and just nodded. A minute later he realized he was staring and looked down to resume eating his breakfast.

They finished their breakfast together in a comfortable silence. Orihime looked up at the strawberry that was currently impaled upon her fork then glanced over at Ichigo eating the last few bites of his breakfast. "I wonder how the strawberries feel about being eaten by an Ichigo-kun. It's kind of like cannibalism," she wondered aloud.

Ichigo was about to reply when caught the sight of Nanao entering the room, clipboard in hand and a familiar look on her face… That look never meant anything good. "Oh shit," he cursed and dropped his fork. Confused with his sudden change in behavior, Orihime turned around to follow his line of sight and began to laugh when she saw the look on the lieutenant's face. He shot out of his seat, grabbed Zangetsu before uttering a quick, "Later, Inoue." Ichigo flung the over-sized zanpakutou over his shoulder mid-flash step, knocking over his plate in the process, and was out the door like a bat out of hell. He heard Nanao's yells melting away into the background as he bolted away.

* * *

After a quick bit of shunpo and a short walk through the woods, Ichigo found himself along the banks of a small secluded lake just within the confines of the newly constructed kido barrier. Ichigo jumped up to settle himself upon one of the larger branches of a nearby tree. He closed his eyes and relaxed against the tree as he concentrated on reeling in his reiatsu. Even after all his training, suppressing his reiatsu was still a difficult and uncomfortable task. He exhaled and visualized the breadth of his reiatsu. Ichigo focused and began to compress the sphere-like shape until it was as small and dense as he could bear.

He opened his eyes a minute later, gazing out at the sun's rays glinting off the surface of the lake. He let his mind wander; attempting to focus on anything other than the suffocating sensation reiatsu compression invariably caused him. A smile graced his lips as he envisioned a scene from an old family trip to the beach two years ago. His sisters played along the shore as their father chased them with his polka dotted swimming trunks and favorite ducky inner tube in place. It was still hard to believe that stupid old man was once a powerful shinigami.

Ichigo tried to imagine what a normal life would have been like without all this shinigami and hollow madness. No hollow attacks, no soul society, no Rukia, no Aizen, no war, no inner hollow… He'd just be a regular high school student. He laughed at the thought of going back to being a normal high school student after everything that had happened. Studying, tests, prom, girls- it all seemed so pointless to him now. Last night was probably the closest he'd ever been to any girl before and shuddered to think what Keigo, or anyone else, would have said if they had seen him together with Inoue like that. 'It's not like that though. I... I just want to keep her safe,' he thought to himself.

_Sure, King. Whatever you say._

_Shut up._

_Look, you can try to lie to yourself all you want, but you can't lie to me._

_I said, shut up!_ Ichigo insisted.

_I just don't get it. You like Hime and she obviously wants you. _The hollow complained.

_I don't like her like that._

_Just because you are some freak of a teenager that doesn't act like a complete pervert, doesn't mean you don't like her. Hell, even __**I**__ like her now. That's saying something, Aibou._

_WHAT!_

_You heard me. I like the princess. Unlike you, I'm not afraid of it. I'm glad I finally got to meet her in the flesh, just wish we could have met under… better circumstances. She's sooo damn sexy, King. If you don't quit being so damn fuckin' stupid, I'm going to take over the body and give her what she wants myself._

_I'll __**never**__ let you do anything to hurt Inoue._

_Did I say I'd hurt her? I said I'd give her what she wants. But if she likes it rough, I'm not making any promises. Seems like the closet-pervert type to me. _The hollow cackled.

_Shut up._

_No, __**you**__ shut up! I know it turns you on- I saw what flashed through your head just now, so don't even try to deny it. Hime wants you bad, King… She wants us. You're too fucking stupid to even see it. Always moping around, thinking you're not good enough. We're damn sexy, King. If you weren't such an emotionally-stunted baka, we could've been tappin' that __**months**__ ago._

_That's it! I'm coming in there and kickin' your ass, bastard, _Ichigo told the hollow as he focused on entering his inner world.

_GOOD! I'm fuckin' bored!_ the hollow ranted. _You never come and play with me anymore. Zan won't even spar with me anymore. _

_Because you're a pervert, _Zangetsu accused, popping up near the hollow.

"Hey! Just because I grabbed your ass that one time-"

"The fuck?" Ichigo exclaimed as he materialized within his inner world. "What the hell are you two doing in my head when I'm not here? "

"Come on Zan," his hollow begged, "this is what I mean. Let's play and make his brain explode, ne?"

"No."

"Ma... Neither of you are any fun at all!" the hollow fumed and pointed at them accusingly. "Why did I have to get stuck with such sexually repressed freaks?" He turned around and threw his hands up in frustration.

Bright blue eyes rolled as the Zanpakutou spirit spoke, "You do realize that if his brain explodes, we would all die, correct?"

"So we can play in private, would that be better?" The hollow asked after turning toward Tensa and moving his white eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"So… You're just a horny hollow that would have sex with anything that moves aren't you?" Ichigo accused as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oi! I have standards!" the hollow defended. "The princess is hot, we're hot, and Tensa here is kinda cute too. I don't really look at anybody else. It's your fault I'm like this!" Zangetsu shook his head at the hollow's comment.

"How is **your **rampant sex drive **my** fault?" Ichigo demanded.

The hollow stared at Ichigo like he had some sort of mental deficiency for a moment before explaining, "We're two sides of the same person, dumbass. Obviously you repress whatever sexual feelings you have. They have to go somewhere, King."

Ichigo scowled in contemplation at the hollows words for a few moments before speaking his thoughts aloud. "That still doesn't explain why you molested Zangetsu…"

"He's here." The hollow said simply. "And he's fun to mess with," the hollow added a moment later as an afterthought.

"That's _so_ flattering- I think I may have reconsidered." Tensa retorted.

"Can it!" the hollow snapped. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Zan."

"Can't we just talk about what happened yesterday instead?" Ichigo pleaded.

"That's not nearly as amusing," the hollow whined. He pouted and turned to take a seat on edge of the building they were standing on. Leaning back on his hands, he stared out across the seemingly endless line of sideways buildings. "The buildings changed colors after the second battle if you were wondering," he informed the teen, turning to look at Ichigo, standing a few feet behind him. He scowled and asked, "You didn't even notice, did you?"

Ichigo took a seat next to the hollow and looked out at the buildings of his inner world. The building they were sitting on was the same blue as before, but several nearby buildings had turned black. Off in the distance he noticed that the buildings were white and red. "What the hell did that prick inject us with," Ichigo grumbled to himself.

"No idea, King… All I know is that it hurt like hell and there've been some bizarre side effects… I don't even have to concentrate to see what's going through your head or know what you're thinking or feeling anymore," the hollow said in a solemn tone. Ichigo turned to face his hollow with a frown.

"When you were forced to take control and Ichigo lost consciousness," Tensa began, standing close behind the two teens, "this world was thrown into turmoil. The winds were harsh while lightning struck repeatedly and the rain poured down in sheets. Some buildings crumbled while others were swirling with different colors. Your hollow seems to own a small portion of this domain now. It seems to have had little lasting effect on me however."

Ichigo leaned his head back and saw a pair of blue eyes looking back down at him. He leaned back and lay down, covering his eyes with his arm. "Just what the hell do these bastards want?" he muttered.

The hollow joined his counterpart and stared up at the black building above them. "They're making me stronger. I don't know why the hell they think that making me stronger will benefit them in any way. They're dead wrong if they think I'd ever join them," the hollow growled. Ichigo moved his arm and turned his head to look into his hollow's black and white eyes. "I don't care if you believe me or not, Aibou. Aizen is just a big pussy who rarely ever fights his own battles. I'm not going to let some pansy like him use me," he grit out. "I'd rather be your horse than his pack mule."

"I'm not sure that this is entirely the drugs fault," Tensa said after a few minutes of watching the two stare at each other. "Something happened during the first battle as well," the Zanpakutou clarified as he looked at the hollow. "The way you described what you felt reminded me of what materialization and bankai training felt like in the beginning. It could be possible that there is a second level of hollow release."

"What?" They said in unison, both giving Tensa an incredulous look.

"Whether you see it or not, you both have grown closer in recent months. You each seem to be feeling the other's emotions on a more consistent basis. Ichigo, you have become a more skilled and ruthless fighter during your battles. You both stopped trying to kill and sabotage each other months ago… I never thought I would see a hollow feel human emotion, but you've become more interested in your counterpart's life outside of battle as well."

"You're saying that there might be a second level of release, beyond using the mask?" Ichigo asked, letting his sword's words sink in.

"That's what the evidence indicated. I think this injection seems to have simply sped up what was already occurring."

"From what Hime was sayin', after I lost consciousness, the mask hardened and became something completely different…"

"What the fuck gives you the right to keep calling her Hime? " Ichigo demanded after whipping around to glare at the hollow.

"Don't get jealous… That's what you want to call her when you make the princess our queen," the hollow cackled. "It's also her _name_, baka King."

Ichigo bolted upright, rage flowing through his veins. White-hot anger threatened to make them burst. He clenched his fist and smashed it into the building with enough force to make it crack. The hollow grabbed the back of Ichigo's shihakusho, slammed him back and pinned him against the building.

"Do not let the anger get the best of you," he said, inches away from Ichigo's face, silencing the teen with a serious look. "Anger keeps triggering all of this weird shit. Whatever they injected us with is giving us both anger management issues, ne? So **calm **the **fuck** down, King," the hollow let out with a growl. He could feel the rage melt away as his king relaxed. A huge grin spread across the hollow's face and he slowly relaxed the pressure his arm was exerting to keep the teen down. The hollow licked his lips as he gazed down into chocolate brown eyes. He quickly realized that although he was very much in tune with his shinigami partner, he was lucky the same could not be said for Ichigo.

Tensa rolled his eyes before interrupting the pair, "Back to the conversation…" The two looked up at him in surprise and Zangetsu had to force himself to withhold his laughter. Twin expressions reflected between nearly identical faces. "Either way," he continued, "You should be careful Ichigo. The only thing that is certain at this point is that the enemy is planning something for the two of you."

"Yea…" Ichigo agreed. "Get off of me, idiot," he grunted as he pushed the hollow away.

"That form could have been an incomplete form of second level release. It's unfortunate neither of you were conscious during the incident… You should begin training to master this form as soon as possible," Tensa recommended before taking his leave.

"Kinggg," the hollow whined. "I don't wanna see those damn vizards again,"

"Well I don't want to see that damn perverted shopkeeper, but we don't exactly have much of a choice."

"Oh well… As much as I love night time cuddles, we probably have a better chance to hook up with the princess back home!" the hollow said excitedly.

Ichigo stood up and sighed in frustration but made sure to keep his anger in check as he addressed the albino, "Why the hell do you care about her so much?"

"I don't see what the problem is. You like the princess and she obviously likes you. So hurry up and go get us some action already, King." the hollow urged.

Ichigo brought his hand to his forehead with a loud smack. He rubbed his eyelids before pinching the bridge of his nose as he muttered, "Too fucking weird... My hollow is trying to give me advice about girls..."

"Weird? You want weird? I want the princess- that's cool. I like Zan a little- I can deal with that and explain it with the fact that there is literally no one else around. But…" he trailed off then slowly began to smirk as he silently approached Ichigo. "I want you too, King. Does that make us bi? Or is it just some weird version of vizard masturbation?"

Ichigo's eyes shot open, cheeks burning with embarrassment as he began to stutter, "Wha- You… I… SHUT YOUR PERVERTED MOUTH!"

"What's wrong, Aibou?" the albino sneered as he walked forward, forcing the flustered teen to back up. Ichigo panicked when his back hit a newly manifested wall. "What's wrong, Ichigo?" the hollow cooed with a grin. A pale arm suddenly appeared beside Ichigo's head, the other pressed firmly against the teen's chest. "You look as red as a strawberry," the hollow mused. Cocking his head to the side, he licked his lips and murmured in a deep, lusty tone, "Makes me wonder if you taste like one too." Ichigo stared at his hollow as he leaned forward slowly. Panic set in and he quickly snapped his mind out of its state of shock, barely avoiding the hollow's kiss. Ichigo could hear his hollow's snickering fade into the back of his mind as he vanished back into reality.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the little flashback at the beginning. (I'm pretty sure it's directionally correct btw.) There will be more flashbacks in upcoming chapters. I skipped quite a bit ahead and there's a lot that has happened that I still would like to cover. I had part of Ichigo's conversation with his father written out as well but I'm not sure what I want to do with it. I'm not a big fan of making up facts that are still unknown in the manga. Let me know if you want to see it and I might write it out and include it in an upcoming chapter.

I hope you liked the chapter and I'm sorry for the long wait. I was hoping to get it out a while ago but the holidays were crazy and it gave me just about as much trouble as chapter 2 did. There wasn't much Japanese in this chapter. I put Orihime's incantation in the Japanese, but that was explained. Uhh… I guess there's the one "Ma…" You can read it as "Jeez..." or something. Everything else has been explained previously. Sorry for being a horrible tease at the end, but I didn't want Ichi's head to explode yet. ;p

Thanks for all the feedback, it helps keep me motivated and I really appreciate it.


	5. Chapter 5

You won't see me cry, I'm hiding inside  
My heart is in pain but I'm smiling for you  
Oh baby I'll try to make the things right  
I need you more than air when I'm not with you  
Please don't ask me why, just kiss me this time  
My only dream is about you and I .

Stereo Love – Edward Maya ft. Alicia

* * *

"KUROSAKIIII! WHERE ARE YOU- GET BACK HERE!" Nanao yelled in the middle of the dining area, startling the few people who were scattered amongst the tables of the dining area. "Mattaku… I guess I'll just have to get someone else to haul… What exactly do you find so funny, Inoue-san?" Nanao asked, irritated by the girl's persistent laughter.

Inoue clamped both hands over her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laughter. Unfortunately, Nanao chose that precise moment to adjust her glasses. Snapping her head down to the table, Inoue hid her head in the crook of her arm in an attempt to conceal another fit of laughter. After taking a brief look around the room, Nanao realized that her bizarre outburst had turned her into the center of attention.

"There will be a short meeting after sunset tonight," Nanao stated as she turned to make her escape. She paused a moment to add, "If Kurosaki isn't back by the time you are finished with your rounds, please be so kind to go and fetch him."

* * *

"Please test the range of motion of your hand," she instructed after removing the last of the bandages. His eyes were glued to his hand as he ran through every motion he could think of. His mouth dropped slightly and eyebrows rose in astonishment. "How does it feel?" she asked.

"It feels like the battle never happened and it was all a bad dream," he stated quietly. He shook his head and looked up into her grey eyes. "Your abilities are quite astonishing to experience firsthand. Truly amazing, Inoue-san."

"Arigatou, Akon-san," she replied with a smile. "I'm glad your hand has made a full recovery." Orihime bowed before moving to continue her rounds. She turned to look at him in confusion when he grabbed her wrist with his newly regenerated hand.

"How did you know the attack was coming?"

Orhime looked around to see if anyone was listening before responding hesitantly, "Eto..."

"Onegaishimasu… I need to know. The curiosity is killing me," he pleaded softly. Akon reassured her worried look with a small smile and pointed to the horns on his forehead. "I'm not going to judge you upon your abilities."

Orihime let out a sigh. She had been working a few hours already, maybe a break wouldn't be such a horrible thing. "I guess I can sit and chat for a few minutes. I have some questions I'd like to ask you as well." A flash of apprehension crossed his face before he nodded. Orihime grabbed a nearby chair and placed it next to his bed. "I'm sure you already have a basic understanding of my powers by now, right?" she asked as she sat down.

"Hai," he affirmed before blurting out a quick summary of her abilities. "Three basic abilities split amongst 6 faeries called the Shun Shun Rikka. When not released, they reside within your hairpins. Santen Kesshun utilizes three of the six to create a shield that rejects something from occurring. Souten Kisshun utilizes two of the faeries to reject damage that has occurred within the target area. Kouten Zanshun utilizes one faerie in an offensive ability that rejects the existence of something within its path."

She chuckled a bit at his summary of her powers. "Sou desu-yo. My powers originally began to awaken around the time Kurosaki-kun received Kuchiki-san's powers and became a shinigami for the first time. You are aware of Kurosaki-kun's hollow abilities. My abilities are not very similar to his but they do possess some hollow-like qualities. My abilities are similar to one of the other vizards."

"Which one?"

"My shields are similar to the abilities Hachi-san created once he became a vizard," she explained. "I trained with him for a while before the war escalated."

"So… You think that you can sense these arrancar attacks because you posses hollow-like abilities," Akon concluded.

"I believe so. I've only begin to notice something strange before attacks recently. The last attack was the only instance I had enough time to warn anyone."

"Sou ka… Omoshiroi ne," he mused.

"My turn!" she cheered, bringing her hands together with a clap. "I've never gotten a chance to talk to anyone from the 12th division before! Do you enjoy working in the 12th division?"

"Uhh.. Yea," he admitted sheepishly. "I guess it's become sort of like a home for me over the last 100 years or so."

Inoue smiled; glad that he was happy despite all the rumors she had heard about the division. Her eyes wandered to his horns. "Ano… "

"Taicho encourages us to experiment and modify ourselves," he quickly explained.

"Did it hurt?"

"A little, but I don't mind pain," he replied with a shrug, sitting up on his bed and letting his legs hang over the edge.

"What's your favorite food?"

He blanked for a moment at the randomness of the question. "Spicy salmon onigiri."

"Oooh! That sounds tasty!" Orihime gushed with excitement.

"Yea- It's quick and simple to make. Easy to eat. We don't get much time for meals."

"How do you get all those cigarettes?"

"I occasionally slip into the real world to buy them in bulk."

"But aren't they bad for you?"

"I'm already dead," he stated.

"Oh… I'm sorry." She stared down into her lap.

"Don't be. It's just the way things are. Sometimes it's easy to forget how young you humans are. Hey, doc- Can we finish this outside?" he asked wryly and grinned. "I'm _dying_ for a smoke."

"Sure," she replied with a giggle. "Your hand is all healed. If you're feeling better, you can be released anyways."

"Good deal," he said, sliding off the bed to stand and grabbing his trusty pack of smokes from inside his shirt. Orihime followed him as he headed outside. He lit his cigarette and leaned back against the side of the building as he took a drag. She joined him leaning against the wall.

"What is between you and the Kurosaki kid anyways?"

Orihime froze and a blush began to color her cheeks. "Huh? I- Err…" She took a deep breath before turning her gaze to her feet and replying quietly, "We're just friends…"

"Uh huh." He replied mockingly.

"We are!" she insisted.

Akon rolled his eyes, leaned his head back, and let the smoke roll out of his mouth. "Well, you might be friends," he conceded and paused a moment before looking over at her out of the corner of his eye, "but you love him."

"Eeeeh?" Orihime looked over at him in shock.

"I'm a scientist. You're not exactly very adept at hiding it," he explained and frowned as Orihime groaned and sank down to the ground, sticking her head between her knees and putting her hands over her head. "He's also extremely protective of you."

She looked at Akon for a moment before mumbling, "He's like that with everyone. Does everyone know?"

"I doubt it," he reassured her. "I'm just unnaturally observant. It's my job." He paused a moment and took another drag from his cigarette. "He is different around you, you know."

Orihime fiddled around with a piece of grass for a minute before Akon broke the silence. "You have other friends in this war too, yet you follow him. Is it because you love him?"

"iie... Chigau. I…" Orihime clenched her eyes shut and swallowed before continuing, "If he died because I wasn't there, I wouldn't be able to live with myself." She dropped the piece of grass and buried her head in her arms. "I don't think couldn't live with myself if any of my nakama died… But he always volunteers for the most dangerous battles."

Orihime stood a few moments later, wiping her eyes then wrapping her arms around herself and sighed. "With our abilities, I suppose it works out for the best in the end. He's so strong… I may not be strong, but I know my place is to utilize my healing and defensive abilities for the people involved in those battles." She took a few steps then turned to face him, eyes red from crying. "Why are you studying the both of us so intensely?"

He stared at the girl for a moment before taking one last drag from his cigarette. "What are-"

"I've noticed you observing Kurosaki-kun during this mission," she interrupted. "You observe me to a lesser extent. Why are you really here?"

He dropped his cigarette to the ground and put it out with his foot. "You two are an oddity," he said simply. "It piques my interest."

"It's more than that," she insisted. "Your captain would _literally_ kill to have me as a research subject. I'm certain he feels the same about Kurosaki-kun. However, I never thought he'd stoop so low as to have one of his officers stalk us. All you had to do was ask."

Akon laughed at the girl's sudden change in demeanor and lit another cigarette. He didn't realize she could be this observant and confrontational. She truly was much more intelligent than she tried to let on. "Sorry. My captain prefers observation over interviews. Of course, he'd rather have a good dissection any day, but he knows the other captains would never allow it. If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't too fond of the idea," he said and looked towards the sky with a smile. "It is nice to get out of the lab though."

* * *

His eyes went wide in shock. The pain was suffocating him. His shihakusho was already shredded and bloody from all the cuts and blood he had already lost. He looked down and saw his arm hit the ground. Pure black sword landed a foot away as a stray cero disintegrated the arm. His brain sent messages to move the arm that was no longer attached, but it was no use. His sword was gone. His eyes rolled back in shock, barely noticing when he was stabbed though the chest. He lost consciousness and began to fall.

"ICHIGO!" Rukia shrieked as she saw him falling towards the ground.

Orihime immediately turned around and gasped as she spotted a blur of orange and black spiraling towards the ground. Three faeries shot out of her hairpins and rocketed away to attempt to catch the boy before he hit the ground.

Rukia froze her enemy in place and shunpo'd over to face Ichigo's previous opponent in a fit of rage.

Orihime stood and sprinted towards Ichigo. Behind her the shield covering an unconscious Chad dissipated as the faeries flew off to join their master. Ichigo landed on an orange triangle just above the ground. An arrancar sonido'd in front of her but dissipated a second later when Tsubaki swiftly sliced him in two.

Rukia was frantically lashing out at Ichigo's opponent. The arrancar seemed amused at the response he had elicited, which only served to infuriate her more.

Orihime fell to her knees as she reached Ichigo and murmured, "Shun'o. Ayame. Souten kisshun. Watashi wa kyozetsu suru." The shield glowed brightly as it erected over Ichigo. Tears began to roll down her face as she inspected his injuries. The damage was extensive. He had been stabbed several times, lacerations were everywhere and he was missing an arm. He looked so helpless, lying there face down in the dirt.

Above her, Ishida took over the fight with the arrancar as Renji grabbed Rukia and dragged her away, screaming.

Tsubaki popped out of her pins once more and appeared in front of the healer. "Reinforcements. Now. Update the captain," she murmured. The faerie flew off. She shook her head. "Someone else go find the vizards." A moment later another faerie popped out and sped off.

Rukia was struggling fiercely against Renji, determined to kill that bastard arrancar. Renji sighed and took the butt of his sword to knock out the fiery midget with a well placed blow. Renji was sure he'd get a beating from Rukia tomorrow, but it was better than having her get hurt because she wasn't thinking clearly. He propped her up against a tree a good distance away before quickly returning to assist the Quincy with his opponent.

Orihime stared blankly at the shield in front of her, eyes lifeless. He lost his arm. The one he wielded his Zanpakutou with. She glanced over at the nearby sword; two remaining faeries materialized and went to retrieve the sword for her, placing it next to the girl before returning.

How would he ever fight again? As much as the idea of not him not being hurt like this again appealed to her, she knew he wouldn't be able to live like that. She could feel the reiatsu emanating from the sword as she fingered the worn black and red handle of the sword fondly. She let a small smile grace her lips as she felt its reiatsu begin to thrum with something akin to recognition.

Zangetsu must be really worried right now… Would his hollow even care? Or would he just smile and wait for an opportune time to take over?

"Orihime-sama…"

She shook her head, breaking herself out of her thoughts. "Hai. What is it, Ayame?"

"Ano… Should we begin restoring his arm?"

"EH? But, his arm was turned to ash."

"Do you really think that matters?" the timid faerie asked quietly.

"Of cour-" Orihime cut herself off and stopped to contemplate the situation. "Huh… I… I can restore his arm, can't I?"

"BAKA! Of course you can!" Tsubaki yelled at the girl, kicking her in the cheek. "Quit moping around and focus, woman!"

"Itai! Tsubaki-kuuuuun!" she pouted as she rubbed her cheek.

"The captain is busy but will call for reinforcements," Tsubaki reported. His veins began to pop out of his forehead when he saw the sad look on her face. "Just hurry up and heal the idiot!" he yelled before returning back to her hairpins.

"Right." Orihime wiped her eyes and pulled up her sleeves of her borrowed shihakusho. She closed her eyes and focused completely on her shield. Her hands hovered directly above the shield as it began to glow brighter. She grit her teeth as she transferred her energy into her shield. "Shun'o, Ayame…"

"Hai." The two repositioned themselves; one just above his shoulder, the other beside his thigh.

Orihime let out a shaky breath and opened her eyes slowly to take in the sight of his arm slowly beginning to repair itself out of thin air. First the bones, then the muscles and tendons, then the veins and skin. She had seen the same type of thing happen whenever she restored missing chunks of flesh to other patients… This was of an entirely different magnitude however. The process was quickly sapping what little energy she had left, but refused to stop until his arm was completely restored.

Several minutes later, the last bits of his arm had reappeared. Blood once again began to flow within the veins of his arm causing his skin to revert back to its usual tone. Her shield dissipated and her faeries immediately returned to her hairpins to rest. Orihime used her last bit of energy to flip the unconscious boy over on his back. Tears began to fall onto his face as she wiped the dirt off his face. Orihime cupped his face and murmured softly, "I love you. I have for a long time." She clutched onto what remained of his uniform. "I… don't think I could bear to lose you," she confessed. "Don't you **ever** worry me like that again, Kurosaki Ichigo!" She blurted out as she began to sob uncontrollably. "I'll… I would… never… forgive you." Fatigue eventually began to overcome her, sobs slowly starting to subside as she simply let herself pass out on his chest.

…

Orihime stared off blankly as she recalled what had occurred a little over a month ago. She sat alone in the corner, naked, arms wrapped around her knees, shivering. The shower's water had gone cold a while ago. Tears ran down her face. She failed once again to keep herself from remembering. He almost lost an arm. He had almost died… just like…

She clutched her head and rocked back and forth, willing herself to repress and forget.

Orihime froze when she heard a knock on the door. "Inoue-sama? Is everything alright?"

She quickly wiped her face and took a deep breath before trying to respond in a normal voice. "Hai. I just forgot to take a shower this morning."

"Alright. Sugiyama-san was looking for you…"

"Okay. Tell him I'll be back shortly," she replied.

Memories continued to play through her mind unwillingly as she got up to finish washing her hair.

…

Shortly after, the vizards had shown up to, _once again,_ save the Shinigamis' pathetic asses. They shifted the battle further away from the city and the battle began to come to an end.

Ichigo began to stir. He yawned and went to stretch when he noticed a something was on top of his chest. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked down to find Inoue on his chest. His eyebrows knit together in confusion. Her hair was disheveled and her face puffy and wet from crying. He moved her hair behind her ear before the last hour hit him all at once. "How in the world…" he mumbled as he stared at his hand in disbelief.

Orihime began to move and her eyes slowly opened. She shot back when she realized she had passed out on him and he was awake now looking at her in disbelief. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to… I-"

"You're sorry?" he cut her off. "Sorry about what? You completely restored my arm, didn't you? It was completely disintegrated by a cero but you… You can heal something from nothing now?" he rambled quickly in disbelief.

"I- oof!" She froze and her eyes shot open as he suddenly enveloped her in a hug.

"You're truly amazing," he murmured. "I don't think I can ever thank you enough. For everything."

"Well, will ya look at that?"

Ichigo released her and turned around. "Shut up, baka. Look at this," he said, pointing to his arm.

"It's an arm, big deal. Have you finally lost yer marbles, Ichigo?"

"Don't be a jerk, Shinji," Ichigo replied as he stood up. "It was cut off and cero'd into oblivion..."

"Huh? Then…" His mouth dropped open and pointed. "Hime-chan?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes and Orihime just nodded solemnly.

"Well then. I can't wait ta tell Hachi. This calls fer a celebration, ne?"

"Eh?" She asked confused.

"Come on! You just made a ton of progress with your powers. Let's go grab something to eat, just you and me," he suggested with a huge smile and wiggle of his eyebrows. Shinji received a swift punch to the gut from Ichigo's newly regenerated arm for his efforts. "The hell was that for?" Shinji yelled, bent over clutching his stomach in pain.

"Don't hit on her, asshole. She's obviously not in the mood to celebrate," Ichigo growled.

The two continued to argue for several minutes before being interrupted with a quiet, "Ano…" The two stopped fighting and looked at her. "Unless I'm needed, I think I'll just go home for the night and sleep in my own bed."

"Unohana-taichou is here now, along several officers of the 4th. I'm sure you've done more than enough fer one day, Hime-chan."

"Inoue…"

"Yer comin' with me, prick." Shinji grabbed Ichigo by the arm and dragged him away.

* * *

After a 15 minute walk through the woods, Orihime finally spotted a clearing up ahead. She had finished her rounds an hour before sunset and headed off to collect the flighty vizard for the meeting. Ducking under branches and climbing over a few more rocks, the lake was looking rather tempting for a swim. 'That shower I took earlier has completely gone to waste after that walk.' She felt around her head, picking out a couple of twigs and leaves from her hair when she heard something from the lake. "Kurosaki-kun?"

"EH? Inoue? Shit… How did you find me?" he asked, quickly sinking into the water and looking around frantically.

"Well… I've always been able to sense you if I put my mind to it. Don't worry though, I don't think the fukutaicho was able to figure out where you were," she said with a smile. "How's the water?"

"Uhhh…. Good?"

She looked around to take in the scenery as she said, "I was thinking about taking a quick dip myself. It's so beauti-" She cut herself off when she spotted a pile of his clothes hung against the trees a few yards away. She felt her face flame up as she realized his entire uniform was hanging on the tree's branches. "Umm…. I… Errr…."

"Yea… I hadn't taken a shower yet and I wasn't exactly expecting company," he explained nervously.

"That's ok, um… I'll just be going…" she said, pointing back towards the forest.

"Matte!" Orihime turned around to look at him. "You don't have to go. I mean… Just turn around. I'll put something on then you can swim."

"Uhh… Ok."

She walked back towards the woods and leaned against a tree, facing away from the lake and his clothes. 'Right. This is no big deal. I just need to behave myself and not turn around,' Orihime thought to herself.

A little devil popped into existence over her left shoulder. "You should go for it. I mean, when do you think you'll ever get a chance like this again?" Dressed in a Shihakusho with little red horns sticking out of his head with a tail to match, he looked awfully similar to Tsubaki except without a bandanna to cover his mouth.

"But I couldn't betray Kurosaki-kun's trust like that," she murmured.

An angel appeared over her other shoulder, looking identical to the devil except dressed in a white shihakusho; halo and wings replacing the horns and tail. "Will you quit it with the Kurosaki-kun already?" he exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "I think you two know each other well enough to go by first names by now. I mean, you even shared a bed with him last night…"

"She didn't even get any action either! How lame is that?" the devil ranted.

"I know right?" the angel agreed.

"Aren't you supposed to be telling me that the other guy's idea is bad?" she questioned the angel, pointing to the devil on her other shoulder.

"As long as you don't get caught," the angel replied with a shrug. "Hell, even if you do get caught, at least it would show some direct interest in the boy! Besides, the Kurosaki-kun thing is much more important. It's **really** annoying…"

"You've got that right," the devil agreed.

"It'd be awkward though."

"NO!" they both yelled in unison before the devil continued, "You would do anything to not seem forward in anyway whatsoever. The boy is obviously as dense as they come. If you don't make a move, I doubt that boy will get laid this decade..."

"Inoue?"

"HAI?" she yelled after being startled back into reality.

He let out a soft laugh before replying, "I said I was dressed about 3 times already."

"Ahh… Gomen…" she apologized before explaining in a rush. "A little devil and angel landed on my shoulders and started arguing with me. I kept telling them no but they kept insisting and what kind of angel agrees with the devil anyways?"

He rolled his eyes and put a hand on her shoulder and guided her towards the beach. "Hai, hai. Wakattayo. Let's swim a bit before the sun goes down."

"Oh yea, Nanao-san told me there was a meeting tonight after sunset before dinner tonight. That's why I came to get you."

Ichigo groaned. "Alright, we probably need to make it a quick swim if we're going to get into dry clothes before the meeting and not get yelled at." He flash stepped up to dive into the lake.

"Woa, kakko ii…" she murmured to herself in awe.

* * *

"Yosh! All finished." Orihime said excitedly.

"That's so cool. It's completely dry," Ichigo said, running a hand through his hair.

"I've never tried anything like it before. Your shunpo dive gave me the idea," she explained, moving to dry her own clothes and hair with her souten kisshun.

Ichigo shrugged. "I didn't really think about it, just seemed like the thing to do." He watched the sun setting over the lake, vivid colors spread across the sky and reflected off the water.

"So beautiful," Orihime murmured.

Ichigo looked over at the girl standing next to him, completely enchanted by the sunset. Her auburn hair seemed to glow as it was lit up with the colors of the sunset. His eyes followed her tongue as it flicked out to wet her slightly parted lips. "Yea… beautiful."

"Oh no," she groaned. "It's going to be dark soon and we still have to walk back!"

Ichigo smirked. "Who says we're walking back?" Orihime looked at him confused, squeaking as he grabbed her and slid her around onto his back. "Hold on tight," he instructed as he shifted her into place and supported her under each of her knees.

"Kurosaki-kun is going to give me a piggy-back ride?" she asked with a giggle, wrapping her arms securely around his chest and shoulders.

"Hai, Ikuzo."

"Woaaa! Segoi!" she exclaimed as they took off into the sky. Ichigo quickly shunpo'd them towards the camp just over the tops of the trees as the sun began to sink below the horizon.

A minute later, Ichigo landed and let her down. Orihime's smile took his breath away when he turned to look at her. "It's so much fun!" she gushed excitedly. "It's such a rush! No wonder you shunpo around when you're bored! How do you do it anyways?"

He snapped out of his trance and they began walking towards the meeting place. "Oh, it's kinda simple. You just focus your spiritual energy on your feet to increase your speed. Do you think you'd be able to do it if you learned?"

"Well, Ishida-kun has his Hirenkyaku and Sado-kun has an ability to move faster as well so I don't see why not. I've just never really worked on it. I'll have to ask Hachi-san when we get back to Karakura. On second thought, I don't think he can shunpo either…" Orihime said, face falling slightly.

"I'll teach you."

"Ehhh? Honto?" she asked, blushing furiously.

"Err…" Ichigo backtracked, realizing what he had just offered to do. "I'm not sure how good of a teacher I'd be or anything. It just kind of came naturally to me. Maybe Urahara or that perverted cat woman could help out too."

"YOU CAN WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE MEETING TO SMOKE!" They heard Nanao yelling as they approached the door.

"Okay! Okay. No need to get so worked up about it," Akon replied, leaned up against the back wall, arms crossed across his chest. He had a slight smirk on his face as he watched the two humans arrive together out of the corner of his eye.

"How kind of you to join us, Kurosaki. Take a seat," Nanao instructed. Ichigo rolled his eyes but complied. "Alright, now that we're all here… I can start. I talked with my taichou earlier. He has been in contact with Seireitei. The other group is to meet up with us tomorrow after finishing the basic repairs on the bridge. Since it has been made obvious that you are the target of their attacks, Kurosaki, you will be sent to the real world along with several others."

"How exactly is the real world any safer than here?" Ichigo questioned.

"You are to meet up and stay with Urahara-san until further notice."

"Oh. Well that's convenient."

"Yes, very. Moving on, the soutaichou has made this trip a top priority. I realize you will not appreciate being guarded, but since your inner hollow is obviously unstable, you have no choice in the matter," Nanao stated resolutely.

"He is NOT unstable!" Ichigo defended, reiatsu spiking and rage boiling before he felt Inoue's hand on his leg. A sense of calm soothed him as he looked over at her. Ichigo took a deep breath before continuing, "**I** am unstable. **I** got injected with something. Don't blame what happened on him, it was obviously the purpose of their injection. He is as stable as I am." Ichigo was fully aware that although vizards were tolerated by soul society, there was still a heavy stigma associated with having hollow powers.

"I apologize. You still have no choice in the matter."

"Fine. Whatever."

"Good! Now that it's settled. Inoue-san, you will be going with and act as the healing officer, much like you have the past few days. Hanataro will be staying with us. Only one other healer will be leaving with you, but more will meet you on the other side."

"Hai."

"Akon-sanseki, you have been requested to accompany Kurosaki by Urahara-san. He would like you to stay in the real world for a few days. Your captain approved his request," Nanao explained.

"Wakarimashita."

"You are the only 3 going from this group. Kyouraku-taicho is briefing the other group. He will be accompanying you as well. That's all for tonight. Get a good night sleep," she ordered before taking her leave. Akon followed a moment later, lighting up a cigarette as soon as he was outside and walked off.

Ichigo stood and held out his hand to Inoue. Orihime smiled as she took his hand and allowing herself to be pulled up. "So… What all has changed?" she questioned as they walked outside.

"Uhh… My inner world changed a lot. It's almost as if its split in two now," Ichigo explained. "The buildings changed colors. My hollow seems to be more in tune with me than before. He was acting a little weird when I went there earlier…"

"Oh no! Did he attack you? Is he trying to take advantage of this to take over?" she asked, worried.

"No, it's nothing like that. That's what is so weird about it." Ichigo glanced over at Orihime, noting how beautiful she looked in the moonlight. He could see the reflection of the stars in her eyes as she looked at him, confused. Ichigo quickly tore his eyes away before he let himself get carried away. "He was nice. Too nice," he said with a shudder, wincing as he could hear his hollow laughing at him from within the recesses of his mind.

"Well, at least he's alright. Did you talk to Zangetsu? Was he ok?"

That shut his hollow up quickly. Ichigo looked over at her again, concern written all over her face. "Uhh, un…"

"What's wrong?"

"iie! Nandemo nee. We should hurry to the dining area before all the food is gone though."

"You're right!" Orihime agreed and increased her pace towards the dining area.

* * *

Akon was bent over gathering everything up from his projector when he heard Nanao's voice come up from behind him. "I don't know what your captain's scheme is or why you are here, but I don't want anything happening on the trip to the real world," she said, deadly serious.

He turned to look at her for a moment before standing and replying, "I didn't realize you cared."

"Of course I care!" she shouted. "Look, your captain gave you permission to be a part of this mission; as such you will act accordingly as a member of the squad."

"Obviously," he replied, rolling his eyes as he resumed his prior task.

"I don't want anything happening to either of them," Nanao pressed.

"Me either."

"Well… good," she said, mildly surprised. "Umm… Do you need any help with that?"

"Nope."

"Thank you for showing the movie tonight. I'm sure everyone appreciated it."

"It's not a problem," Akon assured her. He started to walk off with the projector and its accessories stacked securely in his arms, bidding her a quick good night over his shoulder.

* * *

_Oh. My. God. You are such a fucking pussy! You're in a bed with a beautiful girl, AGAIN, and you aren't even touching her. AT ALL!_

_Just shut up. I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable._

_Yea. __**This**__ isn't awkward at all, _the hollow replied sarcastically.

Lying on their backs several inches apart, Ichigo and Orihime didn't dare move a muscle, each not wanting to disturb the other. Ichigo had lost track of how long he had been staring at the ceiling, his thoughts persistently straying to the girl next to him. Was Orihime really becoming more than just a friend to him?

_You certainly enjoyed snuggling with her last night and waking up with her across your chest this morning, _his hollow taunted.

Ichigo let out a groan. _Why can't you just keep your opinions to yourself?_

_I don't have to play nice you know, _the hollow responded, irritated._ I could take over at any time so you might want to at least __**pretend **__to care about what I have to say, King. I'm just trying to give you some advice. _

"Do you ever think about what our lives would have been like without this war?" Orihime asked in a whisper.

Ichigo looked over at her thoughtfully for a moment before replying, "Yea actually."

"What do you think about?"

"How ridiculous the life of a normal high school student would be after all of this."

"Mmm. It's pretty hard to imagine going back now," she agreed, keeping her focus on the ceiling.

"What do you think about?" Ichigo questioned as he rolled onto his side to face her.

Orihime looked over at him, unsure of what to say. "I wonder what life would be like without everyone. It seems like it would be lonely. We probably wouldn't have become friends," she murmured, returning her gaze upwards.

Ichigo's eyebrows knit together. "That's not true."

"You barely talked to me before you became a Shinigami," Orihime reminded him.

"You're good friends with Tatsuki. We said hello every morning..." Ichigo trailed off as he realized his argument was coming up short. "I guess we weren't exactly close. I was pretty stressed out because of all the spirits stalking me, even before I became a shinigami."

"Spirits stalked you?" Orihime asked.

"I've been able to see ghosts since I was little, but later on, I guess my spiritual pressure attracted spirits. I spent a lot of time after school trying to help them," he explained, looking down to study her face. "I'd like to think we would have become friends eventually either way."

"Really?" she asked, finally meeting his gaze again.

Ichigo nodded. He wanted to look away, but found himself unable to tear his eyes away from her gaze. There was something hidden in her eyes that he desperately wanted to understand.

_Pathetic, King. You're really just going to stare at the girl. Do __**something**__, baka!_

Ichigo scowled, rolled over, and lay back down.

"What's wrong?" Orihime asked, confused by his sudden change.

"Nothing," he replied, hoping she would drop the subject and go to sleep.

She rolled over and looked into his eyes. "Tell me."

"You don't want to know," he insisted, returning his gaze to the ceiling.

_Tell her how you really feel, King. Stop being such an idiot! _

_Shut up!_

_NO!_

Ichigo looked back over at her, noticing that she hadn't backed down. "Sorry, it's just my hollow," he relented.

"Huh?" she said, confused.

_Yea, King. Tell her you hear voices talking to you inside your head… Better yet, tell her how much I want to fuck her_.

"I don't really understand what goes on between you and your hollow..."

"He talks to me sometimes," Ichigo admitted. "So does Zangetsu, but he's not really the talkative type."

"Your hollow talks to you? Cool!" Ichigo flinched when he heard his hollow laughing. "What is he saying?" Orihime asked excitedly, finding it difficult to keep herself quiet.

"Nothing you'd want to hear," he assured her.

"Tell him I said hello," she whispered.

Ichigo cocked an eyebrow and gave her an apprehensive look; his hollow howling with laughter. Ichigo was about to ask her why when he suddenly clutched his head as he felt his hollow pulling him into his inner world.

Orihime sat up and leaned over him, worried he was in pain. "What's wrong, Kurosaki-kun?" After a few moments, he relaxed. "What happened?"

Suddenly his hand shot out, grabbed her behind her neck, and pulled her down into a sudden kiss. Orihime froze as her brain frantically tried to catch up with what was happening. "Hiya, Hime." He cooed quietly, smirk slowly spreading across his face as he opened his eyes to reveal black and gold eyes.

Orihime proceeded to do a rather convincing imitation of a goldfish as she attempted to keep her brain from melting completely.

"Awww… Did I leave ya speechless? It was my first kiss ya know, I didn't realize I was such a natural." He could feel Ichigo thrashing wildly in an attempt to take control and just mentally laughed in response.

"Ano…"

"What is it princess?" he asked, playing with a strand of her hair.

"You… You just kissed me! That's what." Orihime blurted out incredulously, keeping her voice as quiet as she could manage. She had no idea what was going on, but didn't want anyone else finding out that Ichigo's hollow was currently in control of his body.

"Yep," the hollow replied with a smile. "I wanted to give you a proper hello. I'm sorry we didn't have more time to talk the first time. I was a bit pre-occupied, ne?"

"But… Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime whispered anxiously as she put her fingers to her lips. She had always wanted Ichigo to be her first kiss. His hollow wasn't really the same. How would Kurosaki-kun feel about this? It was making her head spin.

"Don't worry about Ichigo, sweet heart. I'll let him back out again in a few minutes," he reassured her. Orihime let out a squeak when she felt him snake an arm around her and press her firmly against his body. "In the meantime," he drawled, "I think we should enjoy this while it lasts. What do you think?"

"But-" Orihime started to protest before she was cut off by another sudden kiss. Her mind was reeling. She didn't know what to do or how to react. It felt so good to finally be held like this, even if it was just by his body with his hollow in control. Orihime couldn't help but moan when he softly bit her lower lip and palmed her ass. He briefly licked her lips and rolled on top of her.

Inside his inner world, Ichigo paused his struggle against the confines his hollow had set in place when he heard her moan.

Orihime grabbed the back of Ichigo's neck and ran her fingers through his soft hair. She had always wondered what his hair would feel like when she had dreamed about this so many times before. Finally letting herself go, she returned his kiss as she decided to simply enjoy the moment. The hollow grinned against her lips, pleased with her response. He slowly slid his hand up her side to cup her breast and pinch her nipple. She let out another muffled moan under his ministrations and arced her back against him. He groaned softly and rocked his hips against her, pressing his arousal against her. He placed a hand over her mouth as he moved to whisper in her ear, "Be quiet, Hime." He licked her neck slowly before taunting her, "Unless you _want_ an audience."

He looked down at her for a moment, taking in the sight of her looking up at him, eyes half lidded, face flushed, and impatiently squirming beneath him. Orihime pulled him down into another kiss, running her other arm up his back.

_You owe me. Big time, _the hollow told Ichigo as he relinquished control.

Orihime felt him slow his movements for a moment, so she decided to try something from her dreams. Ichigo found himself deeply entangled with Orihime when he regained control of his body. One hand was thread through the hair on the back of his head, the other firmly gripping his waist. He bit back a moan when he felt her writhe against him as she slowly caressed his earlobe with her tongue before softly nipping it.

Ichigo grabbed the back of her hair roughly and pulled her back, slamming his lips against hers. He smirked as Orihime softly moaned against his lips, desperately wanting nothing more than to completely lose control.

_That's more like it, Aibou. _

Ichigo froze for a moment before regaining control of his senses. He pulled back and rolled off the girl, smirking when she let out a low whine. He stroked her cheek with his thumb for a moment. Orihime's eyes fluttered open, sighing in content. She rolled over to snuggle into his chest when she saw his eyes, freezing when she noticed that his eyes had returned to his usual brown.

"I-" she started before being cut off by his finger pressing against her lips.

"I'm so sorry," Ichigo apologized. "I shouldn't have let him take control like that." Orihime had never felt more embarrassed in her life. She had just taken advantage of him while his hollow had fought him for control. Orihime tried to roll over to hide her face from him, but Ichigo held her firmly against his chest.

"Inoue, look at me." She shook her head. "Look at me." She willed herself not to cry as she shook her head again. "Please?" he asked. Ichigo grabbed her chin and forced Orihime to look up at him.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, looking into her eyes.

Ichigo frowned when she averted her eyes. "Please don't hate me, Orihime," he begged.

Orihime froze when she heard her given name leave his mouth in such a low needy tone.

Ichigo caressed her flushed cheek. "I don't think I could bare it if you hated me," he admitted quietly.

Orihime looked up at him, mind spinning. Confused about what had happened and what it all meant. 'Does he actually like me? What about his hollow? When did Ichigo take over? Did he kiss me?' she thought in a rush.

Her eyes widened in panic as Orihime saw him closing the distance between them. His other hand stroked her hair as he gently pressed his lips to hers one last time, trying to convey what he couldn't say. Orihime melted into his lips, going limp in his arms. When he pulled back this time, he rolled over onto his back and pressed her head to his chest. Ichigo stroked her hair as she snuggled into his chest and relaxed. Orihime fell asleep with a small smile etched on her face, listening to his heartbeat.

* * *

I wanna know why the only lyrics that ever come to mind are the oddities of my playlist lol… Either way- I love the song. I've been listening a remix of it entirely too much. I thought it fit well.

I thought this chapter would have been easy and quick to write… Man was I wrong. Sorry for the delay, but it is the longest chapter so far… 7,500+ words… That's almost the length of 2 chapters… -_-; I wrote ahead a bit as well, so eventually the chapters should start coming out faster and faster. I'm not going to try to predict when I'll finish the next chapter though. I'm always wrong. At least I'm learning. _

I've been debating about whether or not I'll keep posting chapters on dA once things get a little more hot and steamy… I've come up with an excellent idea of how to deal with it and I think people on both sites will enjoy it.

After some careful deliberation, I've decided that Ichigo wears boxers underneath his shihakusho. The guy obviously wears boxers in his day to day life, so I'm going to go ahead and say since he's spending all his time in a shihakusho these days, he's gonna figure out how to wear some boxers. He probably wraps his fundoshi over them. [I'm still a little confused about the whole fundoshi thing to be honest. I can't imagine Ichigo fighting in one of those thong style ones. Lolwedgies… If I had to guess, it's one of the ones that you wrap around multiple times and somehow has a flap in the front and the back. So confusing. ANYWAYS, I'm fairly certain Ichigo wouldn't appreciate me making him swim in just his fundoshi and I'd rather not be haunted by an angry Ichigo… So he's swimming in his boxers. ;p

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

* * *

Japanese for the Chapter-

全く[mattaku] - Honestly

お願いします[onegaishimasu] - please

そうですよ[sou desu yo.] -That's right.

そうか 面白いね [Sou ka… Omoshiroi ne.] – Is that right… Interesting…

いいえ… 違う[iie… chigau.] - No… It's different.

痛い [itai] – Ow! (it hurts!)

待って [matte] - wait

格好良い[Kakko ii]- cool

行くぞ [ikuzo] – Here we go.

うん[un]-Yea…

いいえ! 何でもネェ.[Nan demo nee]-Nope! It's nothing. 何でも無い [nan demo nai] is how it's more commonly said. I don't hear Ichigo saying ~nai much. Usually he says ~nee. I looked it up and apparently it's a tougher way to say it. lolsthe strawberry actin' all tough all the time. ;p Anyways, it'd be I learned something and found this neat little excerpt. ^_^ If you want to take a look just go to google books and search Kansai Japanese. It's the first book.


	6. Chapter 6

The lunatic is in my head  
The lunatic is in my head  
_You raise the blade, you make the change  
You rearrange me 'til I'm sane  
You lock the door  
And throw away the key_  
There's someone in my head but it's not me.

-Brain Damage, Pink Floyd

* * *

"The hell, Renji!" Rukia exclaimed after bumping into him.

Renji stood there staring, still frozen at the sight before him, mouth hanging open. "I don't fuckin' believe it," he muttered quietly.

Rukia sighed as she closed the manga she had been reading with a snap. She moved to walk around the big oaf to see for herself what was making the idiot act so stupidly. Rukia was pleasantly surprised when she saw the two humans sleeping comfortably with one another. Ichigo looked adorable cuddled up against Orihime. She smiled a moment before scoffing, "Took the idiot long enough."

"Huh?" Snapping out of it, Renji asked confused and looked over at Rukia. "I thought…" He trailed off when he felt her reiatsu shift suddenly.

"Not you too," Rukia groaned. She turned to face him, blood pressure rising rapidly after seeing the look on Renji's face. "The whole of Seireitei is pathetic! Men are idiots!" Rukia ranted loudly as she stomped off.

"Rukiaaaaa…" Renji whined as he turned to follow her. He paused a moment to catch a second glimpse of Ichigo to make sure he wasn't seeing things. A smile grew on Renji's face before he continued after the girl.

Orihime felt like she was floating on cloud nine as she began to stir. She attempted to stretch but something wrapped tightly around her kept her in place. Orihime opened her eyes to see what was going on and noticed something very warm pressed up firmly behind her. A squeak escaped her lips as Ichigo tightened his hold on her and pulled her back flush against him, nuzzling into her neck.

Something was pressing against her butt and the previous night suddenly came rushing back into her mind when she realized exactly what it was. Adrenaline spread quickly, eyes snapped open, and she was suddenly wide awake. Her mind surged with a million different thoughts, 'This is perfectly natural for guys in the morning. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Should I wake him up? I don't want to embarrass him. He probably needs to sleep anyways. Did that really happen last night? I don't think it was a dream. He had one of those last night too though… His hollow-' Orihime's thoughts were cut off when Ichigo ground his hips against her and let out a contented sigh in his sleep. A shudder ran through her body as his breath fanned across her neck, melting her completely.

Orihime attempted to shift around to face him, but he wasn't letting her go anywhere- asleep or not. "Ano… Kurosaki-kun?" she asked in a daze.

Ichigo cracked an eyelid. "Mmm… Mornin'." He mumbled against her neck, voice rough with sleep.

Orihime relaxed and leaned back against him until she felt him begin to press feather light kisses along her neck. After a few moments she let out a shaky breath. As soon as she angled her neck to give him better access, he stopped. "What I don't get a good morning?" he asked, clearing her hair out of the way.

Orihime let out a small groan as his finger ran across her neck. "Uhh… Good Morn-aaahhh!" Ichigo interrupted with a soft bite to her neck, dragging his finger down to lazily draw patterns down her side, over her hips, and across her stomach, making her skin tingle in its wake. He'd been awake less than a minute and his touch was already driving her crazy…

"Sorry, didn't quite catch that," Ichigo teased.

Orihime gathered herself, rolling over to face him. She looked up at him, trying to carefully imprint every detail into her memory. Sunlight poured from the window to backlight his unkempt, vivid orange hair. Half-lidded chocolate eyes gazed back down at her in amusement. Lazy smile began to grow larger as she stared. She returned the smile before slowly pressing a kiss to his lips. "Good morning," she said cheerfully.

"Mmm.. Good morning." Ichigo tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Orihime rested her head against his chest, feeling a pair of arms wrap around her. It was all still so surreal.

"So… We didn't get much of a chance to talk last night," Orihime mumbled against his chest.

"Yea."

"Sorry it's just all a little sudden," she admitted, shyly looking up to his face.

"It's not a bad thing is it?" he asked, hugging her closer.

"No, no. Nothing like that. I was just surprised… I… I…" All this and she still couldn't tell him. He pulled her up into another soft kiss. She froze for a moment before melting into the kiss and moving her lips against his.

"Good." He replied, smiling brightly after pulling away slightly. Seeing that smile was all Orihime needed to feel at ease, a rush of happiness flowed through her and she smiled back at him. They both felt a nearby reiatsu flare, Ichigo's eyebrows came together before asking, "Is that Rukia?"

"The other group must have arrived."

Orihime looked at Ichigo, confusion written across her face as he busted out laughing. Seeing her face, he explained, "I wonder what Renji said to piss her off this time."

"There are probably some new patients I need to tend to…" Orihime admitted reluctantly.

"We're the only ones left sleeping, probably time to get up," he agreed, sitting up and gathering his things.

Orihime tucked her hairpins into place, slipped on some socks, and began to tie her tennis shoes as Ichigo fastened his waraji. It's not that she hadn't worn shihakusho before or that she disliked the uniform, it was actually quite comfortable. Orihime just felt awkward wearing them since she wasn't a shinigami. She knew by some of the looks that she had received, some of the shinigami felt the same way. At first it had felt odd to be wearing modern clothes amongst a sea of black, but she quickly became accustomed to it. Recently she had started wearing black and other dark-colored shirts with her pants so she didn't stand out as easily from the shinigami she always seemed to be surrounded by. Not so much for personal reasons, but tactical ones. She didn't know exactly when it happened but at some point the enemy had began actively seeking her out, so she did her best not to draw attention to herself in any way possible. Ichigo stood and strapped his zanpakutou onto his back before the two headed out, silently walking side by side.

* * *

Ichigo barely stopped the thin, white zanpakutou from slicing his neck as he materialized inside his inner world. "Damnit! I told you to stop doing that!" Ichigo yelled as he pushed the sword away with his own.

"Come on, come on, come on! I wanna fight!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes at the hollow's excessive enthusiasm, not that he could blame him- it had been days since they had fought. "Okay, I get it. I'll fight you if you'll quit attacking me the moment I start to appear."

The hollow just grinned, eyes gleaming with excitement as he lunged towards Ichigo. They exchanged several blows before the hollow landed a shallow cut across Ichigo's chest. The hollow backed off a little and inhaled deeply through his nose before taunting Ichigo, "That was pathetic, Aibou. I know you can do better than that. Focus."

Ichigo touched the wound and stared at the blood that coated the tips of his fingers, captivated. "I'm pathetic? This is barely a scratch. You've lost your touch," Ichigo retorted, flash-stepping behind the hollow.

"You'll need much more than this to land a scratch on me," the hollow growled as he blocked the strike. Their eyes met for a moment as the hollow peered over his shoulder. Taking advantage of Ichigo's distraction, he kicked Ichigo in the side, causing him to crash into a nearby building. Ichigo groaned as he began to extricate himself from the building before being kicked back down. "Pa-the-tic~" the hollow sang, foot firmly planted on Ichigo's chest.

"Well, excuse me. I wasn't planning on a spar the moment I got here," Ichigo gritted out, shifting and kicking the hollow off of him. Ichigo grabbed his sword and flash-stepped next to the hollow midair. He slashed at the hollow, but only managed to barely graze his cheek. The hollow landed upright several feet away from Ichigo.

"That's a bit better," the hollow said, catching the blood that rolled down his cheek with his long blue tongue. "Still nowhere near finished, though," he said with a smile before firing off a quick getsuga.

They sparred for another hour before either of them started to tire at all. The endorphins from the physical activity was still rushing through them as they smiled at one another, slightly sweaty with blood trailing down their skin, coating white and orange hair, and staining their ripped clothes from the small cuts they had sustained. Neither held back, but they hadn't managed to seriously injure the other either.

The hollow was content with the sparring session and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again when a thought popped into his head. Ichigo cocked his head at the hollow's action before he found himself suddenly tackled to the ground by the hollow. Ichigo froze as the hollow lapped up a trail of blood on his neck.

"Get off me you freak!" Ichigo sputtered, trying to push the albino off.

"Come on, Aibou," the hollow purred, "you owe me for last night."

Ichigo's eyes went wide at the hollows words. "W-What?" he stuttered. "**This** is what you had in mind when you said that?"

"Not necessarily… But we both know you've been feeling a little… _tense_ since this morning." The hollow teased, sliding a hand down Ichigo's chest.

"Why can't you just leave me alone," Ichigo muttered. "Wasn't making out with Orihime enough?"

"Nope! I even I let you take over. I'm just a nice guy like that." The hollow joked.

"Nice guys don't molest people," Ichigo huffed.

The albino scowled and pushed off the teen. "I didn't even get to do what I really wanted, so stop acting like I didn't do all of that for you!" the hollow yelled, pointing a finger at Ichigo before turning around and laying down several feet away.

A blush spreads across Ichigo's face as he tried to rationalize the hollows actions last night, 'But…'

"Why?" the hollow supplied. Ichigo nodded, standing up and taking a few steps towards the hollow. "It was painfully obvious neither of you were going to do anything to make yourselves happy."

Ichigo was completely confused. This was new territory for the hollow. 'He really cares? About something other than fighting? It's not just about sex either… How is that possible…? He doesn't even have a heart, does he?'

"Fuck Aibou, I don't even _know_ anymore," the hollow replied to the others thoughts. "I don't have a heartbeat but it's not like I have a hole in my chest either."

Ichigo belatedly noticed that he hadn't spoken any of that. The hollow was responding to his thoughts alone.

"No shit, Sherlock. To be honest I'm a little surprised you can't read mine." A grin spread across the hollows face and he turned toward the teen. "You are a baka king though, so I should have seen it coming." Ichigo growled at the hollow as he stood up to stare at Ichigo heatedly. "Nope. Definitely can't read my thoughts," the hollow replied with a grin.

'How are you doing it?' Ichigo asked the hollow via thought.

"I dunno. Are you sure you want to know what I'm thinking?" The hollow challenged.

Ichigo scowled, disliking where the hollow was heading with this. "I don't know. What are we going to do about Orihime though?"

"It's not the Princess I'm concerned with right now, King," he informed Ichigo. A split second later he was in front of Ichigo, gripping his chin.

Ichigo didn't know what to think. He had just had his first kiss last night and he really liked Orihime, but apparently so did his hollow. His hollow continued to hit on him even after last night. If his hollow was acting like this, did that make him gay?

"I'm pretty sure you're not gay if you like girls too. I'm pretty sure you humans refer to that as being bi-sexual," his hollow informed him, tilting his head to the side. "You're definitely curious," he mused, stroking his thumb across Ichigo's cheek. "You still haven't made up your mind about whether or not you want me to succeed in this little scheme of mine though..."

"What? Who says I'm curious?" Ichigo huffed, trying to break away from the albino. The hollow gripped Ichigo's hip and pulled Ichigo firmly against him. Ichigo froze and adrenaline raced through his veins. The hollow wasn't cold like Ichigo thought he would be. Quite the opposite, heat seemed to emanate from the hollow's body even through his shihakusho.

"We do," The hollow whispered into Ichigo's ear, simultaneously grabbing Ichigo's ass and nibbling a spot on Ichigo's neck the hollow _knew_ was sensitive. Ichigo let out a sound half way between a surprised yell and a moan, arcing into the hollow's touch. The hollow smirked against Ichigo's neck before moving to bite Ichigo's earlobe. "Mmmm. See?" the hollow whispered. "That wasn't so bad now was it? Glad we're on the same page now, Aibou."

Ichigo pulled back to look his hollow in the eyes. Uncertain brown eyes stared into white on black once again. His hollow looked so similar to himself, yet so different at the same time. His snow white hair and pale skin contrasted vividly with the black sclera. White iris and black pupils only served to contrast even more.

"Don't forget the blue tongue," the hollow interjected as he licked his lips. He watched hungrily as Ichigo's eyes intently followed the action.

"That's really annoying you know," Ichigo grumbled.

"Nah. You just need to learn how to do it, and then you'll understand the benefits," the hollow explained, wasting no time in palming Ichigo's half-hard cock through his hakama. The hollow hummed in pleasure as Ichigo jumped in surprise.

"You can be so amusing sometimes, King. Just relax," the hollow purred.

His eyes grew to comic proportions as the hollow leaned in, intent on finishing what he had tried to start last time.

Ichigo could tell this kiss was different than the one with Orihime. He couldn't quite pinpoint what it was but there was some sort of weird electricity going on. Whatever it was, it felt absolutely incredible. Ichigo let his eyes close. He returned the kiss and the strange sensation increased. Ichigo let out a moan allowing the hollow to sneak his tongue inside to play with Ichigo's. His tongue caressed Ichigo's, goading him into playing along. Their tongues wrestled for dominance as Ichigo tried to pin down what it was he was feeling. It was almost similar to the feeling you get when you try to get two magnets of the same polarity together. Instead of letting the two repel away from the other, they were forced to stay as close as possible resulting in sparks igniting between the two.

The hollow pulled back after a moment. "I know, King… I know," the hollow commented between pants. Still caressing Ichigo's now rock hard cock through his hakama, the hollow pressed his own erection into Ichigo's thigh. A strange sensation simultaneously surged through Ichigo's dick as the hollow did that.

'What the hell was that?'

The hollow smirked. "See, you're almost getting it."

"Huh?" Ichigo asked dazedly.

The hollow sighed in mild irritation. He stopped stroking Ichigo's dick and ground against Ichigo once more.

'There's that strange sensation again. It's almost as if…'

"There ya go." The hollow purred.

Ichigo looked up at the hollow, releasing the white shihakusho he hadn't realized he'd been gripping and shyly ran his finger down the hollow's neck, shivering when he felt a strange tingling sensation on his own skin. "The fuck?"

The hollow ignored him and bit down hard on Ichigo's neck. They both let out a groan. Ichigo froze when his hollow went to untie Ichigo's hakama.

"It feels good, don't it? Quit thinkin' so much and enjoy it." The hollow scolded, dropping Ichigo's hakama to the floor and removing any other impeding cloth.

"But-"

The hollow cut Ichigo off with a kiss as he wrapped his hand around the base of Ichigo's cock. He slowly stroked upwards, Ichigo's eyes fluttered closed as the sensation overwhelmed his brain. The hollow continued the motion until he couldn't contain himself any longer. His other hand quickly ripped off his own pants, freeing himself and grasping himself to pump his cock in time along with Ichigo's.

"Uuugghhnnnn," Ichigo groaned as the sensation nearly doubled. The hollow smirked and Ichigo opened his eyes, burning with desire. He used his other hand to grab the back of the hollows neck as Ichigo pulled him down into rough kiss. Ichigo ran his other hand down the hollow's chest, over his belly button, through white curls, replacing the hollow's hand and stroking pale cock, gradually speeding up to match the pace of the hollow's hand. Ichigo was little unsure of what he was doing and why, but he was fiercely determined not to let the hollow do all the work.

It was the hollow's turn to groan as Ichigo nipped his lip, shyly darted his tongue out to run it across soft white lips. He could tell that they were both already very close to cumming. Ichigo's lips slowly came to a standstill as the pleasure began to completely distract him. He let his head fall to the hollow's shoulder and let out an unsteady breath. "Ffff.. Fuck." Somehow his hand had gone on auto-pilot, continuing to push them towards the edge.

The hollow let out a strangled groan, bucking into Ichigo's hand as he came. Ichigo followed shortly after, pressing his head into the hollows chest and letting out an unsteady breath. "Shit! Ichi…" the hollow moaned as a second wave of ecstasy ran through him, burying his face in Ichigo's soft spiky orange hair and inhaling deeply. 'Huh. Doesn't smell like strawberries.' The hollow's half-conscious thoughts wandered.

Ichigo let out a tired laugh. "'Course I don't smell like strawberries, dumbass."

The hollow chuckled. "Nah, I guess that'd be too cliché, huh?"

"Uruse," Ichigo grumbled, closing his eyes and leaning against the hollow sleepily.

Ignoring the mess, the hollow wrapped an arm around Ichigo and let himself fall back against the building. Ichigo was slightly startled by the action until he realized they were bouncing up and down against the building as if it were a mattress.

"Gotta sleep somewhere, don't I?" the hollow muttered. Ichigo suddenly felt a wave of sympathy for the hollow rush through him. The hollow spent all his time cooped up inside the inner world filled with nothing but buildings, clouds, rain, and a solitary zanpakutou. Ichigo realized that it was probably the first time the hollow had done anything sexual with anyone.

Then he realized that he himself had just had his first sexual experience.

With a guy.

And it was… amazing…

Ichigo's head bounced slightly on the hollows chest as the hollow chuckled and pressed a kiss to Ichigo's head. "Just sleep, stupid."

Ichigo smiled lazily and cuddled up against the hollow, letting his hollows warmth drag him off to sleep.

Sometime later, Ichigo woke up and realized he needed to get back to the real world. He had no idea how long he had been in here or how long he had slept. He carefully extracted himself from the hollow's arms, noting how cute the hollow could be when he was sleeping and not trying to kill him. Ichigo let a smile spread across his face before disappearing from his inner world, completely missing the look Zangetsu was giving them as he rolled his eyes.

Ichigo's eyes fluttered open and stared at the small black sword sitting across his lap for several moments before grabbing it and standing. He released his bankai, wrapped the sword up, and strapped it across his back.

"Took you long enough," Renji commented, leaning against a nearby tree. "What were you doin' in there? Having a party?"

Ichigo froze. He had completely forgotten that Renji had also been mediating. His face heated with embarrassment and hoped Renji didn't notice anything strange. "No..." Ichigo replied, not turning to face the red head.

"I finished about half an hour ago. Come on. Let's go get some lunch! I'm starved." Renji called to him, already on his way to the dining area.

'Damn perverted hollow.' Ichigo thought to himself as he turned to follow Renji.

* * *

"Quit whining! You look gorgeous."

"I don't know Kuchiki-san… Don't you think kimonos are a little overkill for the party? Why do you even have these with you?"

"Psh. We were going on a lengthy mission with **Kyouraku-taichou** and I actually had time to pack for once. Just be grateful I packed you one, Orihime. And call me Rukia, I've already told you a hundred times."

"Ah, gomen. Arigatou, Rukia-chan."

"Don't apologize!" Rukia scolded her as she dug through her bags for the geta she brought to go with the kimonos. "Jeez."

"Sorry." Orihime said quietly, smoothing out her kimono and double checking her hair in the small mirror that Rukia had brought.

Rukia rolled her eyes and went to pack up the rest of her stuff back in her suitcase when she remembered something that made her eyes shine mischievously. "Say, Orihime… Speaking of formalities, are you calling him Ichigo yet?"

Orihime's face turned a vivid red to rival the shade of lipstick Rukia had forced on her. "A- Ano…"

"Come on. I'm on a first name basis with both of you and I've known each of you a fraction of the time that you've known each other. This really is getting ridiculous." Rukia muttered.

"I don't know. We haven't really had a chance to talk about things since last night…" Orihime trailed off the events of the previous night streamed through her head.

"Ohhh? So what happened last night?" Rukia asked, bouncing with anticipation.

"UMM! I mean. We've never talked about it! About calling each other by our given names." Orihime spouted, completely flustered.

"Nuh uh. Spill it, Orihime. What happened?" Rukia pressed with a strange gleam in her eye. She could smell the romance a mile away after what she had seen this morning. This would _definitely _be much more interesting than her precious manga. It was always much more fun to be able to meddle. Her supply of unread manga was running dangerously low anyways.

Orihime suddenly found a sudden interest in the hands in her lap that were fiercely fidgeting. "Ummm…"

"NOW!" Rukia demanded, making Orihime jump slightly.

"Well… It's complicated… I told you about what happened during the second battle when his hollow took over…" Orihime turned her gaze up towards Rukia with a determined look in her eyes. "You have to promise not to tell anyone," She demanded. Orihime realized she'd never get any peace if she didn't tell Rukia what had happened, but she refused to let Ichigo get in trouble because of his hollow.

"Yea, Yea. I promise. Get on with it." Rukia said absentmindedly, salivating at the promise of what Orihime was going to say.

"I'm serious, Rukia," Orihime insisted, receiving a firm nod from Rukia in reply. "Well… We shared a bed the first night. We were both extremely tired. He… pulled me into bed with him and was right up against me. It made my head spin."

"Oooohhhh! Lucky girl! But that was 2 nights ago, what about last night?" Rukia pressed.

"Well… Ummm… We were talking about his inner world and his hollow..."

"Uh huh," Rukia said, scooting closer to Orihime.

"And I told him to say hello to his hollow," she continued.

"Uh huh."

Orihime fidgeted for another few moments before blurting out in a rush, "His hollow took over and kissed me."

Rukia looked at the girl for several moments, blinking several times. "Wait… WHAT?"

"There wasn't a mask or anything and his reiatsu didn't change all that much, but he took over and kissed me," Orihime explained. "He said…. He said he wanted to give me a proper hello since he didn't get to the first time we met."

"Oh my god! That's so weird! Yet… Oddly cute at the same time," Rukia said, putting a finger up against her lips as she contemplated what Orihime had told her.

"He started kissing me again after a minute," she continued. "Then sometime after that Kurosaki-kun-"

"You kissed the boy! Call him Ichigo for kami's sake." Rukia interrupted, rolling her eyes.

Orihime blushed vividly. "Well, I think at some point… Ichigo-kun regained control."

"And he was still kissing you?" Rukia asked, riveted.

"I didn't notice when he took over, so yes. He apologized about his hollow and begged me to forgive him. He called me Orihime then kissed me."

Rukia went bug eyed at this. "His hollow kissed you, he kissed you, he called you Orihime and you still get flustered about calling him by his first name?" she asked incredulously.

"Like I said we haven't had much time to talk about it," Orihime whispered.

* * *

"Ah, Ichigo-kun!" Kyouraku greeted with a smile. "It's about time you two showed up! Let's get going."

"Eh? Where are we going? The party isn't here?" Ichigo asked.

"It's a surprise." Kyouraku said with a wink.

"A surprise? Sounds like fun!" Orihime exclaimed.

"Oh, I think you're going to love this surprise, Orihime-chan," Kyouraku said, turning to walk towards the woods.

"Let's go!" Orihime said to Ichigo excitedly. Ichigo smiled down at the energetic girl, making a mental note about how much she loved surprises. Orihime had really surprised him earlier by showing up in a kimono with her hair all pinned up; she looked so beautiful in the moonlight.

It was a fairly easy walk through the woods, but Ichigo was careful to stay close to Orihime in case she tripped over something in her geta. "Where are we going, Kyouraku-san?" Ichigo asked several minutes later.

"So untrusting, Ichigo," Kyouraku whined. "It's only a little farther."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "It's only because I know you," he chided.

Kyouraku burst into laughter. "You have me there. Look, I see the fire now," he said, pointing ahead.

"Wahhh! Kirei!" Orihime gushed and ran off ahead.

Ichigo chuckled as he watched her run off towards the others. Crossing his arms, he asked Kyouraku, "What's with the bonfire? What kind of party is this?"

"It was Hanataro's idea," Kyouraku explained, chuckling a little when he saw the boy's eyes still glued to the girl. "There's nothing better than yakiimo and sake under the night sky by a warm fire amongst friends. It's been too long since I've done anything like this."

Orihime was already talking rapidly with Rukia and Hanataro by the time Ichigo walked up and took a seat beside Orihime. Akon was sitting next to him, puffing away on yet another cigarette while playing with his lighter. Kyouraku took a spot across from Ichigo, grabbing a large bottle of sake and producing a small pipe from his robes. He quickly packed up the pipe, lighting it with a fancy bit of kido. Renji had been staring blankly into the fire before Kyouraku poked him with the end of the pipe. Renji accepted the pipe, ignoring a glare from Rukia. Renji passed the pipe back, not bothering to offer it to Rukia. Kyouraku took another hit before offering it to Hanataro who sputtered out his refusal before taking the pipe and passing it. Akon took an uninterested glance at the pipe out of the corner of his eye before grabbing the pipe, taking a hit, and holding the smoke in. Akon offered it to Ichigo, who shook his head in refusal. Akon leaned back and made several smoke rings before handing the pipe back to Hanataro.

Everyone had their own bottle of sake as well as several extras that were sitting around. There seemed to be some sort of unspoken drinking contest between the most the men around the fire. However, Hanataro was obviously not an experienced drinker and seemed content to sip at his sake along with the girls. It didn't take much for them to get drunk and were feeling the effects far sooner, off of less than the other four. Kyouraku didn't seem to change much, even after 3 hefty bottles of sake. He shamelessly flirted with the girls, complimenting their kimono. He offered Orihime a seat on his lap, giggling like a maniac when Ichigo looked ready to jump across the fire and kill him. Akon stayed quiet for the most part, content to listen to the others talk while he gazed at the stars and watched the fire. After his first bottle of sake, and several turns with the pipe, Renji seemed to lighten up considerably. Orihime and Rukia mostly talked amongst themselves, giggling as they sipped on the sake. Ichigo mostly stayed quiet, offering sarcastic remarks here and there, poking fun at Renji or Rukia between taking rather obvious, long glances at Orihime.

Not too long after the drinking started, Orihime had insisted on dancing and pulled Rukia up to dance after the boys had declined complaining that there wasn't even any music. The boys contentedly watched the girls dance with each other. Hanataro announced that the yakiimo was ready and Orihime fell on Ichigo slightly when she went to sit back down. Orihime apologized profusely after being caught by Ichigo. Ichigo teased her about being a light weight and let her slide off his lap after a moment, but kept an arm around her to keep her close.

About an hour after the yakiimo had been eaten, the party had died down a bit as the alcohol and late hour were mellowing people out as they got tired. Akon lit up another cigarette, inhaling deeply before lifting his head to watch the smoke roll up towards stars. He watched the fire for a few moments before he felt Ichigo nudge him with his arm.

"Can I have one?"

"Ichigo-kun! You shouldn't smoke, it's bad for you!" Orihime protested.

Akon shrugged. "Sure," he said, pulling out a cigarette and handing it over. The more data the better, this seemed slightly out of character for the teen, but maybe he was just one of those types that only liked to smoke after they drank.

"Thanks."

"Ichigo-kuuuuun…" Orihime whined.

"Ichigo ain't here right now, Hime," he stated, grinning as he lit the cigarette. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Ichigo. "I thought I'd drop in to say hello, it seemed like a fun lil' party."

"Ichigo…" Rukia began.

"I told ya, I'm not Ichigo," he stated, slightly irritated. He turned back towards Akon, returning the lighter. "Thanks."

"Yea…" Akon stared back at him, lost for words. His reiatsu felt almost completely normal. It had a slight hint of the dark hollow reiatsu, but it was barely noticeable and well within the normal range for Ichigo without using his mask. The only difference was that his eyes had changed.

Orihime's face was bright red as she took a big gulp of sake. The hollow took the bottle from her when she was done, taking a large gulp of his own. "Man, that burns." He smirked as he looked around at the faces of the people around the fire. "What are you all starin' at? Never seen a hollow before?" The hollow cackled and hugged Orihime closer.

"Can't say I've seen a hollow smoking and drinking sake, no," Kyouraku commented with a laugh. "First time for everything, I guess. Where is Ichigo-kun at the moment?"

"Don't worry," the hollow said, taking another drag from the cigarette. "He's safely tucked away." The hollow tapped at his temple.

"Ano… What should we call you? Do you have a name?" Orihime asked timidly.

"No, I don't have a name."

"What are we supposed to refer to you as then?" Akon asked.

"Whatever you want, I could care less."

It stayed silent for several minutes. The hollow seemed content to sip on the sake as he finished his cigarette. "Tch." The hollow tossed the cigarette into the fire. "You shinigami are all the same. Just because you don't understand something, you're afraid of it. I woulda thought you'd be different, having horns and all. Speakin' of which, it's been bothering me for a while. How the hell does a shinigami get horns stickin' out of their forehead anyways?"

"Self-modification," Akon explained..

"Ano… You really shouldn't smoke without Ichigo-kun's permission." Orihime said quietly.

"What the hell. Even you, Princess? Jeez, I thought out of all these freaks you'd be at least a little happy to see me. This party is lame." He said, standing up and disappearing in a flash.

"What… just happened?" Renji asked after several moments of silence.

"I'm going after him." Orihime announced as she got up, swaying slightly.

"You shouldn't go after him alone." Kyouraku said.

"No. I need to go after him. _Alone._ I'll be fine." She assured them as she turned to wander off into the woods.

It took her several minutes of walking in the direction of the faint bit of reiatsu she felt from the hollow. He was obviously masking his reiatsu well, but that had never deterred her before. Orihime decided to take a small break when she saw a log nearby; all the sake was making her a little dizzy. By the time she sat down and looked back up again he was directly in front of her, causing her to fall over in surprise. The hollow caught her before she hit the ground.

"Careful, Princess. Didn't mean to scare ya." He said with a smirk.

Orihime stared up at him for a while before asking, "Why did you kiss me last night?"

"Because I wanted to," he explained simply, taking a seat next to her.

"_Why_ did you want to?" she pressed.

"Why wouldn't I want to?" he challenged, leaning closer to Orihime. "My question is what do you think of me? You seemed I to like me well enough before I let the berry take over, but ya didn't seem too happy to see me back there."

Orihime leaned back away from him, looking into those unsettling black and gold eyes as he leaned closer. "I-I…" she began to stutter.

"You." He supplied, playing with a stray piece of hair.

She huffed and lay back on the log, putting an arm over her eyes. "I still don't understand what's going on. What are you to Ichigo? What are you exactly? Are you still trying to take over his body? Why are you doing this? Why me?" she asked quietly.

"Because you like it," he explained, pealing her arm out of the way. Licking his lips, he towered over her, blocking the night sky from her view.

"But-"

"You both really over think things, don't ya." He said with a sigh, sitting back slightly. "I am simply another part of his soul. The part that gets burdened with things he'd rather keep hidden. The part that wouldn't hold back if it meant life or death of myself or another. The part that is secretly thrilled with bloodshed and fighting. I am his instincts personified," he explained. "I'm the part that will NEVER let anything happen to you, no matter the consequences," the hollow whispered as he leaned down to kiss her.

All thought evaporated when his lips met hers. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down on top of her, fiercely returning the kiss. He smirked against her lips and ran an arm down her side, relishing in the shiver it produced. "That's more like it," he murmured as he paused for air, nipping her bottom lip and drinking down the moans that came from her.

He sat back and she whined loudly. He laughed, scooping her up and positioning her so she straddled his lap. They both looked at the other, the hollow seemed patient enough and simply grinned widely. Orihime shyly lifted a hand to his face, caressing his check before dragging it down his neck and down into the V of his Shihakusho. He wrapped his arms around her as she let herself settle on his lap. She slowly leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. The hollow let her set the pace but eagerly returned the kiss. He grabbed the back of her neck and whispered softly into her ear, "I can't wait to get you back to Karakura." Grabbing a hip and grinding up against her, she moaned in response. She suddenly froze when she processed the implication of what he said and stared down at him. He pulled her back into a short rough kiss before explaining, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get your Strawberry too. Can you at least admit to yourself that you like me as well, even if I'm not really him?"

This seemed to snap her out of her drunken trance, she suddenly wanted to run away and hide under the nearest rock for the rest of eternity. Orihime felt like she had been taking advantage of Ichigo's weakness and cheating on him at the same time. The hollow kept a firm grasp on the girl before she darted off and sighed. "Fine, fine. Deny it if it makes you happy," he muttered, hugging her before returning back to the inner world.

Ichigo seemed a lot more drunk and confused when he regained consciousness. "What happened?" he asked, eyes glazed over as he looked down at her.

He was a little taken back when she simply hugged him in return. Orihime buried her face in his shihakusho and mumbled, "Let's head back." Ichigo nodded. They leaned on each other as they stumbled through the woods towards the group.

Just before they joined up with the group, Ichigo stopped. "Didya want t'share a bed again tonight?" he asked, words slightly slurred.

Orihime paused for a minute before answering, "Since the other group is here, there should be enough beds now…"

Ichigo's face fell slightly. "Oh."

She looked up at him for a few moments, chewing her lip as she debated. "I'd like that, though. If you don't mind…"

Ichigo whipped his head around to look at her, smile spreading across his face. "I don't mind at all," he said, pulling her back against him.

* * *

The morning passed quickly and was rather uneventful apart from several hangovers and a quick breakfast. Everyone gathered their things and reported to where the senkaimon to the human world would be opened. Akon had spent most of the morning setting up the converter so Orihime could use the senkaimon along with the rest of the group. After a quick debriefing, Kyouraku was wailing his goodbyes to an extremely embarrassed Nanao. After about a minute she gave the signal to open the gate and unceremoniously shoved him inside saying a quick goodbye before disappearing. The walls of the dangai were restrained as the group passed through. Before they knew it, they had reached the exit.

Ichigo recognized the area as a park right outside of Karakura. Moments after the group had filed out of the dangai, the gate snapped close. "Where's Urahara-san?" Ichigo asked Kyouraku. "I thought he was supposed to meet us here."

Before Kyouraku could answer, a burst of energy came from nearby as a garganta opened. Ichigo stared at the offending rip in space incredulously; there was no way they should have known about where or when they would be coming to the human world. His eyes shot open and mouth dropped as Ichigo briefly wondered if he had finally lost his mind.

"Why hello there," Aizen greeted cordially as he exited the garganta. "It's so lovely to see you again, Kurosaki Ichigo."

* * *

*Pokes brain* I SAID NO MORE LONG CHAPTERS DAMNIT!

Anyways... The first chapter with a bit of smut. *cheers* I hope you liked it.

I do feel really bad for this takin' so long. Almost a month… I've already got a good idea of what's going on for the next chapter and I'll get started writing tomorrow.

I've been posting this on both deviant art and here, but... since I don't really feel comfortable postin the smut there, I've come up with some omake's to fill in the gap. You might wanna go take a look at the preview pictures for the chapters sometime. ldzetc . deviantart . com

Hai, kore~

* * *

**dA Omake**

Tensa suddenly appeared next to them. "What do you think you're doing?" the zanpakutou scolded the hollow.

"I think it's pretty obvious what I'm doing," the hollow replied with a smirk.

"Do you want this story to stay on dA or not?"

"I don't care. What I do know is that this much sexual tension in a guy has to be unhealthy."

"This isn't the real world you know. This is a magical place," Tensa explained, gesturing around them. "People don't go past kissing until they are both 18 here."

"Fuck that," the hollow retorted. "He's totally past the age of consent anyways."

"Totally realistic," Ichigo scoffed.

"What exactly are you getting at?" the hollow asked.

The zanpakutou's eyes lit up and he jumped up and down excitedly. "It's time to go SWIMMING!"

"That's not even close to the kind of fun I had in mind." The hollow pouted, releasing Ichigo.

Ichigo sighed and grabbed the hollow's hand to drag him along off to the pool. "Come on. I'm sure we can figure out something to keep ourselves amused there."

"Fine... Let me go get my trunks, snorkel, and inner tube though. I'm fuckin' prepared for this shit," the hollow said, disappearing in a flash.

Ichigo looked over at normally laid back sword spirit. "You don't have to look so happy about it, you know."

Tensa's face immediately became serious as a smirk crossed his face. "You don't have to look so disappointed; I thought you didn't want him to molest you."

Ichigo's face turned a bright red as he yelled, "Damare!"

* * *

Japanese for the chapter-

御免 [ごめん/gomen]- Sorry  
煩[うるせ/uruse]- You're noisy, shut up/be quiet.  
きれい[kirei]- pretty  
黙れ[damare]- Shut the hell up!  
焼き芋[やきいも/yakiimo]- roasted sweet potato


	7. Chapter 7

_And if the dam breaks open many years too soon  
And if there is no room upon the hill  
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too  
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon._

_-Brain Damage, Pink Floyd_

* * *

~1 month ago

* * *

Ichigo was busy tearing through the massive horde of hollows when he noticed a reiatsu spike on the other side of the soccer field that was currently serving as a battlefield. Ichigo was having the hardest time placing the familiar reiatsu. He finished off the hollows directly in front of him as quickly as possible. As soon as he turned around, Adrenaline pumped through him as he instantly recognized her short black hair. 'WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING HERE?'

One of the menos was charging a cero right towards her. If that wasn't bad enough, she still hadn't noticed the arrancar coming up behind her. There was no way he'd be able to get there in time, but that didn't stop him from attempting to break shunpo records in an effort to reach her. 3 flash steps later, he cleanly decapitated the arrancar before freezing at the sight before him.

Inoue's santen kesshun had stopped the cero and was crumbling away, but bathed in an orange glow, Orihime lay over his sister with a deep gash across her back.

Unwanted memories assaulted him as Karin began to stir and looked up at Ichigo from over Orihime's shoulder. "Ichi-nii?" she asked as her vision began to clear. Her brother was covered in blood and cuts, eyes unfocused as he stared at her. No… more like below her. She expected him to be mad, but he wasn't reacting at all. "Ichi- Orihime?" she screamed as she noticed the girl on top of her, not moving. Karin tried to shake Orihime for her to wake up but she remained still. Karin could faintly hear her breathing. "ICHI-NII! Snap out of it! Get a healer!" Ichigo finally looked up at his sister. Karin had never seen her brother look so completely… broken before. Not even after their mother had died. Sad, upset, crying- yes. He looked as if his soul had been completely shattered into pieces. That's when it hit her. Their mother had died protecting him, exactly like this.

"Ichi-nii…" Karin said sympathetically. "She's still breathing. Go get her a medic now." That seemed to snap him out of it enough for him to move. Karin carefully rolled out from underneath the healer, gently resting her on the ground. Karin ripped open the back of Orihime's shirt so she could get a better look at the wound. This was bad. Really, really bad.

A moment later her brother returned holding a small dark-haired boy by the back of his shirt who seemed completely bewildered by his current state. "Ichigo-san! What are you doing? I wasn't-"

Ichigo unceremoniously dropped him on the ground beside Orihime. Hanataro paused, suddenly realizing why Ichigo had been acting so strange as he flitted around the group of healers before tearing him away from his patient mid-kido.

"Heal her." Ichigo mumbled from behind Hanataro.

"Inoue-san…"

"NOW!" Ichigo screamed.

He jumped at his sudden behavior before replying with a stuttered, "H-hai!" Hanataro immediately started a healing kido before stopping the kido a moment later.

"What are you doing?"

"This will be better for this type of wound," Hanataro explained as he pulled out his zanpakutou.

Ichigo's eyes went wide as he saw Hanataro move to cut Inoue with his zanpakutou. Ichigo grabbed Hanataro by his arm. "Are you fucking crazy?"

"Ichigo-san…" Hanataro said calmly. "Let go of me and trust me." Ichigo looked at Hanataro for a moment before releasing his arm to let the healer proceed. Hanataro carefully lined up his zanpakutou and cut along the wound across Orihime's back. The wound disappeared as the gauge on the sword filled. Ichigo watched with a slack jaw as he realized the sword was absorbing her injuries. Of course Hanataro's zanpakutou would do something like this…

Hanataro set his sword aside, gauge full, and resumed his previous kido. Moments later Inoue started coughing as she regained consciousness. Ichigo let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. Orihime attempted to move but Karin laid a firm hand on her shoulder. Hanataro instructed her to lie down and keep still until he was done. Orihime looked over at Karin and smiled. "Karin-chan… I'm so glad you're okay," she murmured weakly.

Ichigo clenched his teeth as his face contorted with emotion… He wanted to scream at the girl for being so stupid, but deep down he knew that if she hadn't… His sister would have been killed. Unable to thank the girl for being so reckless, Ichigo ground out, "I'm glad you're okay, Inoue," before turning to return to the battle.

"Ichi-nii…"

"Go home Karin. Now." Ichigo ordered and was gone in a flash to go release his frustrations in the nearby battle.

Hanataro looked at the young dark haired girl, waiting to see what she would do. Karin met his gaze and informed him, "I'm not leaving until she is healed."

"Karin-chan… You don't… have to. You should do… what your brother said."

"I'll go home when you're healed. And I'm taking you with me." Karin informed her.

"But-" Orihime protested.

"No buts! You saved me. I'm not letting you spend the night by yourself. You can stay in the clinic tonight." Orihime smiled weakly at the girl's stubborn nature that reminded her of a certain someone. As thoughts of the orange headed shinigami invaded her brain, she closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep.

Hanataro could feel the battle begin to die down as the enemy started to retreat. He could feel the dark, angry nature of Ichigo's reiatsu from here. Hanataro turned to see Ichigo slicing through anything that dared to stand in his path. He was single-handedly tipping the scales of the battles so forcibly, he alone was causing the enemy to back off and retreat. Reiatsu vibrated through the air as he fired getsuga after getsuga and cero after cero. Even some of the shinigami had started to back off in awe of the boy's strength, afraid to get in his way.

When all was said and done and the remaining forces escaped through the last garganta, Ichigo stood staring at the spot where the last of the hollows had disappeared. Kenpachi was the only one brave enough to approach the teenager. "That was an amazing show you put on there, Ichigo. You've been holding back on me," he accused.

Ichigo looked over at Kenpachi for a moment before letting his mask slowly dissipate. "Sorry." Ichigo's eyes returned to the sky then glanced over to where Hanataro, Karin, and Orihime were.

"Your eyes are funny," Yachiru said with a giggle.

Ichigo cocked an eyebrow. "Really? Still?" he asked, bringing a hand to touch his face.

"Yep! One's different from the other now!"

Ichigo focused on lowering his reiatsu and pushing his hollow back down where he belonged. "How about now?"

"Awwww… But I liked it better before!" Yachiru pouted. "I wish I could have different colored eyes. Ken-chan! Can I get a mask like Ichi's?"

"No baka. It's not something you can buy like candy," Kenpachi grunted.

Ichigo was gone the next moment.

* * *

Deep within the palace of Los Noches, Aizen sat lazily in the darkness. His face was dimly lit by the images on the large monitor in front of him.

"I know you're there, Gin," Aizen called out in a tired tone.

"Mah… Hide and seek ain't no fun if yer gonna find me every time, Taicho," Gin whined, wide smile etched across his face as he stepped forward.

Aizen turned around to regard Gin. "Next time bring some tea. Go fetch the Octava for me," Aizen said, returning his eyes to the screen.

"Oooh. Tanoshii-sou," Gin commented as he left to carry out his master's orders.

"Mmm... Tanoshii." Aizen murmured to himself as he let a smile slowly creep onto his face. The prospect of a new game already had him feeling the rush of a new challenge.

* * *

Present

* * *

"Why hello there," Aizen greeted cordially as he exited the garganta. "It's so lovely to see you again, Kurosaki Ichigo."

The shinigami towards the rear of the group scrambled to reopen a senkaimon, but every attempt to open a senkaimon with their zanpakutou would only catch air. The group was surrounded in a second by the arrancar. Aizen-sama didn't leave Hueco Mundo without his own personal entourage and several espada were strategically placed amongst them. Ulquiorra was dutifully standing a few feet to the side of his master, looking completely indifferent to his surroundings.

Ichigo didn't want to think about his last fight with Ulquiorra. He was too much of a match for him without his hollow's help and although he was on good terms with the hollow, Ichigo was still hesitant to go all out before figuring out what the hell he had been injected with.

Several months ago, Ichigo had witnessed part of Zaraki's fight with Nnoitra. The fifth Espada was not to be taken lightly. Zaraki had enjoyed the battle immensely but it had ended in a draw when Soul Society had decided to retreat. Even Kenpachi had decided to retreat after he and Yachiru were surrounded by several hundred low ranking hollows. He'd take on multiple opponents any day but the captain had deemed it too much of a pain in the ass. Yelling a promise a rematch over his shoulder as he retreated, Kenpachi left while leaving a trail of corpses on his way out.

Starrk had taken up a spot near the back, opting to lean against a nearby tree. Lilynette was busy scolding Starrk in an attempt to get him to move up towards the front line so she could get a better view. Ichigo still found it hard to believe that the lanky brown haired man was not only the top espada, but that he'd ever joined Aizen in the first place. Nothing ever seemed to hold his interest. It was interesting to see him interact with that fracción of his, she seemed awfully annoying...

Ichigo knew they'd be fucked without reinforcements soon. Unfortunately, it looked like Aizen already had Urahara's group pre-occupied and any further reinforcements from soul society would take a while to get there. It was doubtful they'd even be able to open a senkaimon from soul society here at this point, considering no one was able to open a gate on this side. Not only out-numbered, but the enemy had superior firepower as well. Aizen himself had shown up with 3 of his top ranking espada and their fracción. Rage began to flow through his veins as he realized that he would have to let one of the others fight Ulquiorra and they'd be no match for him. Ichigo felt his hollow's reiatsu seeping into his own, but it was as if it was intertwining with his instead of dominating it.

"Hisashi buri desu ne? I hate to meet up with such an old companion and run, but you see… We already have a prior commitment." Kyouraku explained, smile on his face and a hand hovering over his two Zanpakutou. "Zannen. It's bad manners to drop in without calling ahead, you know."

"Now, now. No need to cut this little reunion short now is there? I won't be taking up much of your time. I do regret to inform you that Urahara-san will, unfortunately, be running a little late."

_I wanna fight that fucker Aizen. I wanna tear that fucking curl right off his face._

Ichigo couldn't help but let out a small snort of laughter, ignoring the looks people around him were giving him; he didn't give a shit. Kyouraku seemed to match up to Starrk better than he would have and they were completely fucked anyways, so why not? _Sounds good to me, Whitey._

His hollow snorted at the nickname. _You almost seem more excited than I am._

"What are you doing here, Aizen? It's not like you to do your own dirty work," Kyouraku said, dropping his voice down to a serious tone.

"Now who's being rude? It hasn't even been a minute yet and you're already trying to get rid of me. I just wanted to meet up with some old acquaintances. Might as well get things started then," Aizen said. He gave a quick signal and the chaos began.

Before Kyouraku could charge Aizen, Starrk suddenly appeared before the captain leaving Ichigo to charge Aizen.

_Sit back, relax, and hold on to your panties. It's going to be a bumpy ride. _Ichigo announced internally, letting psychotic smile worthy of his hollow spread across his face.

_HA! Whatever, just don't let us get killed too quickly or I'll kill ya myself, _the hollow retorted.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and leapt up into the air as he charged towards Aizen. He wanted to wipe the smile off of that bastard's face if it was the last thing he did. Ichigo lunged at Aizen, flash stepping behind him at the last moment.

"Well, don't you look happy to see me," Aizen said, effortlessly blocking Ichigo's attack from behind. "I don't think I've ever seen you smile like that before."

Ichigo pushed off of Aizen's sword and propelled himself backwards before responding, "It's better to die with a smile on your face, ya know."

"Oh my. Have you given up already? That's no good…" Aizen cocked his head to the side to ponder something. "No matter, you seem to have plenty of fighting spirit anyways."

Ichigo's smile faded and his eyebrows furrowed. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I've only ever really met you the one time anyways. How would you know what I'm like?"

"Oh but I do know. I know much more about you than you could ever know about me."

Ichigo grit his teeth and fired off a getsuga. "What kind of bullshit are you spouting now?"

"Oh, but it's not. I've been watching you for a very long time," Aizen said calmly over Ichigo's shoulder as he appeared just behind him.

Ichigo immediately shunpo'd a safe distance away. He didn't even see the bastard move! Aizen could have killed him just then… Why… "You already told me that. You've been watching me since I gained my shinigami powers from Rukia."

Aizen smiled and calmly walked towards Ichigo slowly. "I've been watching you from the beginning."

"That's what I SAID!" Ichigo yelled.

"No. From the very beginning," Aizen clarified.

"The fuck are you talking about?"

"I've known about you since you were born."

It took Ichigo a moment to process what Aizen was trying to tell him. "You… You knew."

"About your father? Of course. It's not every day that a shinigami has a child with a human, you know. I sent Rukia your way because I thought you were ready for your powers and had the motivation to make them grow immensely. You've become a sort of project of mine," Aizen explained with a smile.

Ichigo cursed himself for ever letting himself listen to the man. Before Ichigo could move, Aizen had appeared in front of him, hand against his chest. As soon as Aizen's hand touched his chest, Ichigo found himself unable to move. Ichigo could feel his hollow seething from his inner world.

Aizen slowly opened his other hand to reveal an oddly glowing orb that appeared to have melded temporarily with the man's palm. He tried to pull away, swing his sword, do something, anything, but it was futile. It was almost as if there was some sort of strange gravity surrounding the orb. The hougyouku disconnected with Aizen's hand; it began to glow brighter and brighter as it began to float midair. There was an intense, bright light suddenly being emitted from it before an invisible blast emanated from the orb, blowing everyone back except for Ichigo, including Aizen.

"Omoshiroi…" Aizen murmured, quickly righting himself. He sat midair, transfixed as he watched the orb do its work.

Orihime struggled to move, but found it impossible under the weight of the hougyouku's influence. She still could not see anything past the obnoxiously bright light being emitted from the hougyouku. A strange humming started to come from the orb, followed by vibrations that kept growing larger and larger until there was a second flash of light, accompanied by a blood-curling scream. She shielded her eyes from the light, but could do nothing to make the god-awful screams stop.

After what seemed like an eternity, the light dimmed and the screams finally ceased. Orhime saw something black and white plummeting towards the ground from where the hougyouku was still floating. It was dead silent as the unidentifiable mass hit the ground with a loud thud.

Although they were able to move now, no one moved a muscle and just sat in shock of what had just happened. Orihime was the first to move as she stumbled up to her feet and sprinted towards what had fallen from the sky. Aizen followed shortly after, flash stepping over to gather his precious orb from the sky. He looked down at his creation on the ground and smiled, "Most intriguing."

Orihime paused a few feet away as she spotted a mess of spiky orange hair, noticing Zangetsu impaled upon the ground next to Ichigo. Her brows furrowed when she noticed that his head was resting upon something white. She took a few more cautious steps forward before her eyes grew to the size of saucers as she spotted an identically spiky head near Ichigo's feet. Instead of orange, it was white… with an identical but white bankai cloak? Was this one of Aizen's illusions? His face was against the ground but between the hair, cloak, and body- she knew the other body was as good as Ichigo's long lost twin.

Orihime didn't have too much time to process what had happened because before she knew it, she felt a piercing pain in her stomach. She looked down only to find a sword sticking out of her stomach. She slowly looked up and over her shoulder, face full of shock, to see Aizen smiling back at her as he withdrew his sword. Orihime fell to her knees then sank to the ground as she clutched her stomach. Aizen cast a quick kido at her to knock her out a moment before he was surrounded in a flash of shunpo, but all the shinigami that dared approach him were blown several feet away in an instant. By the time he turned his back towards his quarry, Aizen frowned when he noticed that they were now encased in some strange box of kido he had never seen before, glowing a bright white. It was quickly encased with several thick layers of orange. Aizen kept his irritation under wraps as he looked around only to find one Urahara Kisuke excitedly waving back at him from 30 yards away.

"If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you didn't want to see me!" Urahara shouted in a pouty tone.

"Urahara Kisuke… How… pleasant for you to join us," Aizen grit out. "You are a little late however, as the damage has already been done."

"Oh, this is where you and I will have agree to disagree," Urahara said playfully, pointing his fan towards Aizen and waving it up and down with a flop of his wrist.

Aizen sighed at the man's antics. "I was hoping that my distraction would have lasted a few more minutes, but it is of no consequence. I'm running late and have to return home." He said, signaling the negación. As the negación came down, a senkaimon opened, revealing the soutaichou and several others. Aizen smiled confidently at Urahara, who was smiling right back at him. Urahara stood there as if bidding a good friend an energetic farewell, as if he were happy as a clam about the situation. Aizen dismissed it as one of Urahara's eccentricities until he looked over at the two teens, only to notice that the strange white kido had somehow stopped the negación. Aizen's fury showed for the briefest of moments as he gazed upon the sight for several moments before returning his gaze back to Urahara. The bastard must have developed a kido to negate negación…

"Nice trick you have there," Aizen complimented. "It is of no consequence. I have achieved what I wanted today and I will be returning to claim what is already mine." Aizen turned to the soutaichou and other captains, smiling as he bowed faintly to acknowledging their presence before he was sucked up into the sky.

Urahara's happy demeanor fell into a frown. He quickly shunpo'd over to the two teenagers, only to notice that there were now three of them. "Interesting indeed," he conceded. Several hypotheses were already flooding his brain as the scientist turned to Hachi. "I told you it wasn't necessary for you to come."

"Better safe than sorry with Aizen," Hachi said quietly, dissipating his barriers.

"Very true. Can you please return to the others and watch that barrier I put around that espada for me until I can move him to the shop?" Urahara asked the large pink-haired man.

"Hai desu," Hachi said with a bow, turning to leave.

Even with the vizard's barriers gone, could barely sense either boy's reiatsu. While the other captain's went to congregate around Kyouraku and the vizards to find out what had happened, Soutaichou and Unohana-taichou came up next to Urahara.

"I would like to start healing Inoue-san's wounds as soon as possible. Is there some way to transfer them securely to a safe location?" Unohana asked.

"Hai. I will transport them shortly. Soutaichou?"

"What happened here?" the elderly captain grunted. "Am I seeing two of Kurosaki?"

"It appears so. I can't give you any more information until I get him back to my lab to do some testing. I will send you updates as soon as possible. For now, time is of the essence," Urahara explained. The captain simply nodded in reply before making his way towards the captains already heatedly debating.

"Isane-san, would you be so kind as to fetch Kuchiki-san, Abarai-fukutaicho, and Akon-sanseki so we can depart as soon as possible? I will leave you in charge here," Unohana said. Isane nodded before going off to gather the others. "This is the hougyouku's work, isn't it?" Unohana asked. Urahara simply nodded, eyes glued on the two boys. "That is Kurosaki-san's hollow, is it not?" She could briefly see pain in Urahara's eyes as he looked over at her.

As the three younger shinigami approached, Urahara tilted his head back down to let the shadows cover his eyes. "Most likely," Urahara conceded in somber tone as he opened part of the glowing white box of kido to allow entry for himself and the four others. Once inside the opening closed. Urahara approached the pale, white clad male bending down and rolling him over away from his brightly colored counterpart, noting their faces looked exactly alike. He slowly pulled back an eyelid to reveal unconscious black on white eyes. He slid the eyelid back down before standing back up, turning around and taking the cane of his zanpakutou to draw a circle in the air. The circle formed a passage to allow them to return to the shop quickly. Urahara bent down picked up the paler of the two. Akon hefted an unconscious Ichigo over his shoulder while Renji carefully picked up Inoue, taking special care not to jostle or hurt her any further. After they stepped through the passage, it sealed itself before the kido dissipated.

* * *

It took Orihime a moment before she recognized her surroundings as she woke up. 'This must be one of Urahara-san's spare rooms…' She sat herself up, wincing slightly from the pain that was coming from her stomach. Orihime lifted up her shirt slightly to inspect the bandages, as memories of the day before slowly came back to her. Unohana must have healed her, shuddering as she remembered Aizen's zanpakutou sticking out of her stomach. Orihime felt for Ichigo's reiatsu, noticing he was only in the room next door from her, but… his reiatsu seemed impossibly low for him. Orihime quickly sat up, intent on seeing him for herself.

Wincing at the pain as she stood, Orihime made her way over to the sliding door. After opening the door, she paused at the scene before her. Coloring aside, the two looked exactly alike. Similar pained expressions were etched upon their faces even in sleep. Orihime slowly approached them. The white haired boy's reiatsu felt almost identical to Ichigo's at the moment. It was as low as Ichigo's but had a slightly more hollow-like scent to it. As soon as she saw the two identical zanpakutou's propped up side by side against the wall, her heart sank as it all started to make sense. The hougyouku must have torn Ichigo's hollow from his soul… Remembering the blood curling screams she heard was making her sick to her stomach.

The door to the hallway slid open and Orihime looked up to see Urahara standing there, shadows from his hat masking his eyes. Stepping inside, Urahara slid the door shut behind him before taking a seat next to one of the futons. "I'm glad to see you're finally awake."

"Do you…"

"I don't know when they will wake up. The hougyouku is not usually used in such a quick manner. Usually it takes several days to prep the subject. I imagine… it was not a terribly pleasant process. I won't be able to know the full list of side effects until they awaken and I can do some more testing."

"Oh." A tear rolled down her face as she looked between the two boys. "The… white one is his inner hollow. Isn't it?"

"I cannot say for certain, but I think that within all likelihood it is the same personality that resided within him. Shinji seemed to agree with my hypothesis. The vizards were quite shocked when I showed them his eyes."

"Eyes?" Orihime asked, confused. Urahara leaned over towards the hollow and slid one eye open slightly to show her. "Black and white…" she mumbled.

"They don't enjoy talking about their inner hollows much, but from what I've gathered over the years, each of their hollows is vastly different from the others. The only common trait they all share is the black sclera." With a snap of his fan, Orihime looked back up at the shopkeeper. In a much more lively voice he continued, "Now then, I think that's enough for now. We should leave these two to rest and you should heal yourself before lunch." Urahara quickly rushed her back to her room. "Yoruichi-san went to your apartment for some clothes. They are in the dresser. Please feel free to stay here as long as you like," he said before closing the door with a snap.

* * *

The first thing he noticed when he started to fully regain consciousness for the first time in days, was the indescribable pain coming from his head. Everything else felt like a dull ache compared to the gut-retching pain in his head. He groaned and instinctively rolled towards the heat next to him, nearly moaning from the immense relief the small action gave him. This was so much more… tolerable. Resting his head on something firm with arm wrapped tightly around the object, Ichigo slowly opened his eyes. White? It took Ichigo's brain a moment to work through the sluggishness to figure out exactly what was soothing his pain. He didn't dare back away from… His hollow? Ichigo looked around slowly only to realize that he was very much awake and not in his inner world. It looked like the pervert's house.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san. You seem to have regained consciousness! How wonderful!" Urahara said cheerfully.

"It doesn't feel wonderful," Ichigo muttered. "What the hell happened? How is he here?"

"Well, from what I've been able to conclude while you were passed out, it seems Aizen used the Hougyouku to split your soul. Most notably resulting in what I assume was your inner hollow, now becoming your outer hollow."

"The fuck!" the hollow hissed. One hand shot up to his forehead; the other wrapped around Ichigo, pulling him closer. He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at the orange head currently resting against his chest with a half-pained, half-confused look on his face. "The hell are you doing on my chest?"

"Well… Uhhh…"

"I can't read your thoughts and I can barely feel your reiatsu." He stared down at Ichigo intensely as he concentrated but was still unable to hear anything from the teen. He started looking around wildly. "WHERE THE HELL AM I? What the **FUCK** is going on?" he yelled, bolting upright, effectively removing Ichigo as back pedaled towards the wall. "Fuckkkk…" he moaned as he clutched his head. Ichigo grit his teeth through the pain before crawling back towards the hollow.

"Don't fuckin' move, dumbass!" Ichigo yelled at the hollow, irritated. "You think I was cuddling on you for the hell of it? It fuckin' hurts…"

"What. The fuck. Is going on," the hollow repeated.

"As I was explaining to Kurosaki-san before you awoke, it seems Aizen used the hougyouku on Ichigo to split the two of you apart," Urahara explained, looking at the scene before him speculatively. "So I gather you are both in quite a bit of pain? You've both been unconscious almost 3 days. The hougyouku usually requires time to make changes within a soul… Using it for something as powerful as instantly splitting a soul was bound to have some nasty side effects," Urahara explained, pausing a moment to calculate something in his head. "If physical closeness helps alleviate the pain, then the pain may only be temporary. All the same, I can go whip up something to help ease your pain."

"Please," Ichigo begged, letting himself rest against his hollow.

Urahara just nodded and opened the door to exit. "It's nice to see that you two are getting along," he added, snapping the door shut, two pillows hitting the door a moment later.

After a minute, the hollow was leering down at Ichigo as he mused, "So… He's probably going to be a while…"

Ichigo kept his eyes closed as he nodded against the other's chest, warmth slowly starting to make Ichigo sleepy. "Come on, Ichi. You heard him; we've been sleepin' for two days. Don't go back to sleep and leave me alone with that freak," he whined.

Ichigo chuckled and cracked an eye open as he looked up towards the hollow. "Awww… Is the big bad hollow afraid of the perverted old man?" Ichigo teased.

"Nah, the big bad hollow wants some company and to do something to keep my mind off my throbbing head," he said, sliding his hand behind Ichigo's head.

"Pervert," Ichigo mumbled before allowing himself to be pulled up into a slow kiss. Rolling over, the hollow pinned Ichigo down. The hollow left his lips to nip at Ichigo's neck making Ichigo groan. A gasp interrupted them from their little make-out session; both looked over to find a completely shocked princess standing just outside the room.

Ichigo quickly pushed the hollow off of him, completely embarrassed and red in the face as the hollow lay there chuckling. "Inoue..." he started, walking over towards the door before cursing half way to the door and dropping to his knees.

Orihime moved over to Ichigo where he fell. "Kurosaki-kun!"

"Weren't you the one tellin' me not to move away, Aibou?" the hollow said, laughing as best as he could through the pain as he crawled over to Ichigo, pulling him up against his chest, between his legs as he sat on the futon in the middle of the floor.

"So… This really is your hollow, isn't it?" Orihime said quietly, getting back up to close the door before sitting back down in front of the two."

"I'm right here, Princess," the hollow growled over Ichigo's shoulder.

"Yea, he's my hollow." Ichigo muttered, keeping his eyes shadowed by his hair.

Orihime took a moment to meet the hollow's eyes before blushing. He looked so… different from Ichigo. Completely white in a white version of Ichigo's bankai cloak. White hair, white skin, even white irises surrounded by a sea of black. The hollow just let a grin take over his face as he noticed the girl's blush. "Like what ya see, Hime?" he asked in a low voice, licking his lips with his blue tongue. Orihime made a sound of surprise before she averted her eyes to stare at her lap as her face turned a deep red.

"About earlier…" Ichigo started.

"You never answered my question, Hime." The hollow interrupted.

"What question?" she asked.

"When I asked you if you liked me. I know you like the berry, but you never admitted that you liked me too."

Orihime's mouth dropped and eyes went wide as she tried to stutter out a response, "I-I…"

"You like him," the hollow indicated the orange head firmly being held against his chest by nuzzling against his neck.

"Quit it," Ichigo muttered.

"Shut up, you like it," the hollow whispered, turning back to the princess. "You like me, whether you admit it or not." Orihime tried to deny it but her voice had left her unable to answer. "We both like you. But… Would ya still like us if we liked each other?" the hollow asked softly, pulling Ichigo tighter against him.

Orihime let her eyes wander from the hollow's hold on Ichigo, to Ichigo's blush and averted eyes, then back up to the hollow's waiting face resting over Ichigo's shoulder. The hollow let his long blue tongue lick over the sensitive spot on Ichigo's neck causing the teen to moan before he slapped a hand over his mouth in embarrassment and elbowed the hollow harshly in the side.

"Bastard," Ichigo muttered. "I… don't know what to tell you," he said, looking up at Orihime tentatively. "It kinda just happened after we kissed. It's not like he's trying to kill me anymore." He said with a shrug. He waited a moment for Orihime to respond before continuing. "I know he kissed you when he took over."

"She enjoyed it and kissed me back too." The hollow boasted before receiving another elbow in the gut.

"Shut up for a minute. I guess what I'm trying to say is that… It's okay if you like him. He's a bastard and has that effect on people whether they want to or not." Ichigo said with a scowl deeply sketched on his face.

"I… was just a little surprised that's all. I was just so excited to find out that you had finally woken up and then… I thought he was attacking you…"

"Only in a manner of speakin'," The hollow chuckled.

Ichigo ignored the hollow and kept his eyes locked on Orihime, trying to figure out what was hidden deep inside those grey orbs of hers. She didn't look disgusted, that didn't mean that she wasn't trying to keep everything hidden to be nice. "Please tell me what you're thinking," Ichigo begged softly. Her eyes met his and she noticed the desperate look on his face.

Orihime had been giving the issue of there now being two separate Ichigo's quite a bit of thought since she woke up. She wasn't sure how much Ichigo really knew about what had gone on while his Hollow was in control. Orihime hadn't been able to come up with anything to say to him once they awoke. As much as she wanted to, Orihime couldn't deny that she had truly enjoyed herself when his hollow took over… Or the heat she felt when the hollow had made Ichigo moan a moment ago. Orihime stayed quiet for a minute as she let herself think. She looked between the both of them before she let her eyes settle on the hollow. "I… don't even know your name."

"I haven't had a name until now. Never really thought about it before. I suppose now that I got this new body I need a name, ne?" he mused, letting his head rest on Ichigo's shoulder, eyes darting around the room as he thought. "I guess you ain't really my king anymore either… Ichi."

"You can call yourself whatever you want, whitey," Ichigo said, rolling his eyes at the nickname. "Just don't steal mine."

"Fuck no. I gotta have my own name, don't I? You have any ideas, princess?"

Orihime looked between the both of them for a moment, trying to come up with an idea for a name. She had never named something so important before… Looking at the arm wrapped around Ichigo's waist, she was suddenly inspired. "Shiro…"

"Huh?" both of them said simultaneously before scowling at each other.

"Kurosaki-kun… Shirosaki-kun."

The hollow took a moment to mull it over. He wasn't a big fan of Shirosaki, but he liked Shiro. White was what made him unique. "Shiro… I like it," he agreed with a smile.

"That'll work for a family name, but you need a given name," Ichigo said.

"But I like Shiro…" the hollow whined.

"You don't have to go by your first name, but you'll need something to tell people. People usually have two names."

"So picky... I don't see why your so attached to first names when you were named after a fruit, I-chi-go." He froze as something began to click in his head and he started to smile.

"Shut up. You know what my damn name means…"

"Chi." Shiro said simply.

"What?"

"Chi… Ya know, blood. 'Chi'. I like that part. Hmmm…. How about… Hichigo?"

"Huh? Never heard of that before… sounds like an odd name. The go the same as mine?"

"Yea. Bloody protector- If anyone touches what's mine, I'd make 'em bleed. Good enough."

Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows. "The hell is the Hi supposed to be for?"

"Scarlet? I dunno, but Chigo sounds fucking retarded," Shiro scoffed.

"Names are usually two characters you know…" Ichigo explained.

"Like I give a fuck. You're the one who wanted the first name anyways."

"Whatever," Ichigo said with a sigh. "Shirosaki Hichigo it is."

"I like it. I think it fits you, Shiro-kun," Orihime agreed with a smile.

"Thanks, Hime," Shiro said, grinning back at her.

* * *

Hallelujah! He finally has a name! Ffffffffffffffffffffff… Thank god. Okay so, here it is.

白崎 緋血護 – Shirosaki Hichigo

白崎[Shiro saki] – Like Kurosaki except switch out white for black.

緋血護 [Hi chi go] - Scarlet bloody protector

I know these are both pretty standard names in fan fiction, but I had fun picking out some kanji for Hichigo.

黒崎 一護 – Kurosaki Ichigo [for comparison]  
井上 織姫 – Inoue Orihime [for the hell of it/might as well do all 3/in case you didn't know]

*Note* It's not uncommon for Japanese to use one similar kanji from their own name when naming their kids. (e.g. Kurosaki's: 一心 [Isshin], 一護 [Ichigo] & Ishida's: 宗弦 [Souken], 竜弦 [Ryuuken], 雨竜 [Uryuu]) Not trying to say that Hichigo is supposed to be like Ichigo's kid or anything, but I do think that keeping 1 kanji from each part of the name makes sense. He changed one from his last name as well, so they keep that feeling of being related, but not of the same "nuclear" family. If that makes any sense… *shrug*

* * *

Chapter 440 really killed my opinion of Orihime in the manga. It took me a while to be able to write the battle scene without wanting to kill her off completely… At least she's not some weak ass bitch who can't use Tsubaki to save her life in this… *grumbles*

Anyways… I drew a picture from this chapter while I was cooling my head. It's the preview picture for the chapter on dA. My username is the same on there as it is on here. Ldzetc . deviantart . com

I really do hate to take so long with my updates, but shit happens. It seems like the last couple weeks, life has seen fit to shit all over my plans. I've had quite the impressive streak of bad luck. I'm also going to be moving in about a month and a half. _ On the bright side, I'm not going to be looking for jobs so I have the next month to focus on doing writing and art.

* * *

Japanese for the Chapter

白[shiro] - White  
緋[Hi] – Scarlet, dark red, crimson  
血[chi] – Blood  
護[go] - protect

楽しいそう[tanoshii sou] – Sounds like fun  
楽しい [たのしい/tanoshii] – Fun/entertaining  
久し振りですね_[_ひさしぶり_/____ hisashiburi desu ne] - It's been a long time, hasn't it?  
_残念 [ざんねん/zannen] - Too bad/disappointing.___  
__面白い ____[__おもしろい____/omoshiroi] - Interesting_

* * *

kittykittytwotoes- ["I don't understand the IchiHichi part, is Ichigo really bisexual? Since the hollow is part of him wouldn't that mean he pleasured himself? does Ichigo and his hollow love each other as in you know love love? Sorry for so many questions I'm just really confused."]

Can't answer your reviews if you don't have an account~ So… I hope you're reading.

But… I hope this chapter kind of explained things a bit. The simple answer is yea, he's pretty much bi. It was similar to masturbation, except for not. I dunno. Hard to pin it down I guess. Let's say you cloned yourself, it grew up in a completely different environment and developed an almost completely different personality. Is it still really you? Sorta like that except instead of DNA, its fundamentally different soul structure. But at that point Shiro was still a part of Ichigo's soul… "I want you too, King. Does that make us bi? Or is it just some weird version of vizard masturbation?" [Ch. 4] Interesting question isn't it. Hehehe. Yea, it was pretty much like masturbation, wasn't it? Having sexual relations with another part of yourself. (Especially considering they just jerked the other off.)

If Zan represents Ichigo's Shinigami powers and the power for him to protect, then Hichi represented what Ichigo would be like if he turned into a hollow. He was more closely related to Ichigo than Zan but at the same time, he still had his own personality at the very least. If I had to describe their situation now, it would have to be that their souls are still linked together, but they are separate souls now thanks to the hougyouku. Things will be explained more later, but… You shouldn't consider anything that happens between them now as simply masturbation. Shiro has his own name, body, and soul now.

As far as Ichigo and Shiro loving each other? "as in you know love love?" I don't know. It's certainly unique, ne? It's completely different than what either of them feel towards Orihime. The only thing that feels like "love love" to me would be Orihime's feelings towards Ichigo. Ichigo just came to terms with the fact that he likes Orihime as more than a friend, he's nowhere near being able to admit (even to himself) that he loves her. His feelings do have that type of "love love" feel to them though. Shiro is different… He's a hollow so… it's complicated. (Not your typical type of hollow though, I think he deserves his own little category. He is almost similar to an arrancar now though.) He certainly cares for both of them in his own unique way and admitted that he liked Orihime before Ichigo did, but I wouldn't call him a fuzzy romantic type. More of a "touch my woman and I'll make ya bleed" type or "I'm the only one that's allowed to kill/cut Ichi" type. Possessiveness, jealousy, lust, pride… are all things he feels relatively easily. Other emotions are more difficult. He certainly _does_ seem to care an awful lot about them though.

* * *

I hope this answered your question and maybe helped clarify things for anyone else. I really appreciate every review I get, but if you have questions and review without leaving me a way to contact you, it's hard to answer your questions... Maybe consider making an account here, leaving an e-mail or something, or contact me on deviantArt? I want to be able to answer all of your questions. ;p

Thank you all for reading and I really appreciate any feedback you give, even if it's negative, criticism, a question, or just a simple "I liked it/please continue". A lot changed in this chapter and I'm _very, very_ interested to know what you thought. ^_^


	8. Chapter 8

Urahara slid the door open with a loud smack, slightly surprised to see at how at ease Ichigo was with his hollow. They had shown some signs of amicability earlier, but to allow it to… He attempted to think of a word for the position they were in. 'Is it still spooning if they're not lying down?' Either way, Ichigo was pressed back against the hollow's chest with two arms wrapped around his midsection while the hollow lazily rested his head on the teen's shoulder.

"What do you want?" Shiro asked, narrowing his eyes at the shopkeeper's sudden intrusion. Setting aside his thoughts for later, Urahara plastered the creepiest smile he could muster on his face as he produced two enormous syringes from his sleeves.

Ichigo paled slightly when he caught sight of the needles. The contents were a bright green and were glowing slightly? "Uhhh… What are those for?"

"Medicine," Urahara replied cheerfully, "as requested." Orihime watched the shopkeeper walk across the room and take a seat next to the two intertwined boys. Setting one needle down, he wasted no time in pricking the hollow with the other. A dark substance flowed into the syringe as he pulled the plug back. Shiro cocked an eyebrow as he watched but said nothing as Urahara removed the needle, eyeing the chamber before shaking it slightly, turning its contents into a dark, murky green before it was placed on the floor. Ichigo watched avidly as Urahara repeated the same process on him with the other needle. A light blue substance was extracted from Ichigo which produced a lighter green when mixed with the medicine. Satisfied with his results, the scientist gathered the dark green syringe, flicking the needle then releasing a small amount to get rid of any air bubbles. A foul stench permeated the air while the tatami mats emitted a bizarre smoke where the contents had landed. Before Ichigo could protest, he was pricked with the needle and its contents were emptied into his arm.

"What the hell was that?" Ichigo asked, wide eyed as he stared at the discolored and smoking spot on the floor.

"It's a special reiatsu needle," Urahara explained as he readied the other needle. Shiro watched with intrigue as he was poked a second time and given his dose of medicine. Relief spread quickly, tingling slightly as the medicine circulated. "I needed to mix a fresh sample of each of your reiatsu for it to work."

"There," Urahara commented as he collected the used needles and stood. "You should be able to move around somewhat normally now. I wouldn't suggest getting separated a long distance from one another. It should last a while, but please let me know immediately if the effects start to wear off," he warned.

"Dinner will be in a few minutes," he added with a smile before heading towards the door.

"Good, I'm starving." Ichigo commented as he extracted himself from the hollow's grasp, groaning in pleasure as he stretched out his muscles properly.

"Dinner? Can I even eat human food?" Shiro pondered aloud.

"You won't know until you try, Hollow-san." Urahara said.

"Call me Shiro, Ero-tenshou." Orihime quickly covered her mouth to keep from laughing, but Ichigo couldn't help but laugh at the nickname for the shopkeeper.

"I like this one already!" Urahara announced. "Decided on a name already?"

"Shirosaki Hichigo," Shiro muttered.

"Ohhh... I thought you might pick Kurosaki," Urahara said thoughtfully, stroking the stubble on his chin, "but maybe Shirosaki is slightly more appropriate. See you at dinner!" he added cheerfully as he snapped the door shut.

"What a weirdo," Shiro commented. "Oh well. I've always wanted to try human food."

Orihime smiled. "I'd be glad to introduce you to as many new foods as you'd like, Shiro-kun."

"I think I'd like that," Shiro replied, instantly changing his demeanor and returning her smile with one of his own.

Ichigo looked between the two sitting on the floor with nearly identical goofy smiles on their faces. "Come on, let's go eat." Ichigo extended a hand to Orihime. She stared at it for a moment before grasping it and letting him pull her to her feet.

"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime beamed up at him with a bright smile.

Ichigo frowned down at her. "You can call me Ichigo, you know," he grunted.

Orihime was caught by surprise and her face flushed. She averted her eyes down but her cheeks only heated more as she realized she was staring right at his stomach. Shiro stood, grinned and shook his head at interaction between the two. Orihime shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts. "Ano… Only if you call me Orihime in return."

Ichigo let a small smile escape as he replied, "Sure… Orihime."

"Arigatou, Ichigo-kun." They stared at each other for a moment before they were interrupted.

"You guys finished yet? Whatever it is we're eating, smells amazing," Shiro said as he opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

"Hai!" Orihime said excitedly, stepping past Ichigo and bouncing into the hall. Stiffening at first when Shiro wrapped an arm around her, she quickly forced herself to relax as they walked towards the dining area. Ichigo followed shortly after, closely watching the two in front of him. Something didn't quite sit right with Ichigo, even if it was his hollow that had his arm wrapped around her. This was going to take some getting used to…

* * *

Ichigo was really trying to do his best not to laugh, but watching his hollow eat for the first time was turning out to be the funniest thing he had seen in months. Shiro seemed to have the general idea of how to use chopsticks without being told, but since he never actually had any real experience with them himself, he was failing quite miserably. Every time someone had attempted to give him advice, they were silenced with a hard glare. At this point everyone at the table was half done with their meals and seemed to be pretending the hollow wasn't there. Orihime was still giving him sympathetic glances from time to time and Ichigo couldn't help but watch in amusement out of the corner of his eye.

"FUCK IT!" the hollow screeched as he lifted the plate up to his mouth and simply began shoveling the yakisoba into his mouth. The table stayed silent for a few moments before everyone began laughing in unison. Returning his plate back to the table, the hollow chewed his first taste of human food, slurping up a stray noodle that hung out of the side his mouth. "Urusee," Shiro grumbled quietly as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You're really doing quite well for your first time using chopsticks, Shiro-kun," Orihime reassured him after the laughter had died down. "Did you like it?"

"It's kind of slippery and slimy but it tastes good enough," Shiro said, lifting his plate up to his mouth again and shoveling in a few more bites.

"It's called Yakisoba. It's fried noodles and vegetables," Tessai explained.

"It's good," Shiro grunted with a mouth full of food.

After dinner, Orihime went to assist Tessai with the dishes. Yoruichi headed outside and the kids went to finish their nightly chores.

"Have you given any thought to a gigai or what your cover story will be in the human world, Shirosaki-san?" Urahara asked.

"Uhhh… Not really, no," Shiro admitted. "I guess a gigai would be useful."

"I'm going to guess you don't want to go with the long lost twin or relative scenario."

"No," Ichigo said flatly.

"Well, considering you are supposed to be attending school up north… He could be one of your new friends from school."

After considering it for a moment, Ichigo conceded, "I guess that will work."

Crashing sounds were heard outside of the shouten, Ichigo and Shiro both gave the shopkeeper a quisitive look. Urahara already had his fan in place and simply shrugged in response. The outer door to the shop was shoved open loudly and several more crashes were heard before the door was opened to reveal an intruder in shinigami apparel.

"DADDY'S HOME!" Isshin yelled at the top of his lungs before completely ignoring Ichigo and launching himself on top of Shiro to embrace his son's look-a-like. Shiro went bug eyed and froze in shock when Isshin suddenly encased him in a crushing bear hug. Peering over the man's shoulder, he gave Ichigo a look as if to ask, "WHAT THE HELL?"

After a moment Isshin extracted himself and ran over to declare to the nearest wall something about how he now had two sons to inherit the Kurosaki name. Shiro suddenly snapped out of his shock and kicked the over-excited man with a blow to the back of the head, causing him to smack into the wall before comically sliding down it like a pancake. "I ain't your son and I ain't takin' the name Kurosaki," Shiro declared as he stared at the man incredulously.

"Truly worthy to be my son…" Isshin muttered, tears streaming down his face. Ichigo was taking the opportunity to sit back, shaking with silent laughter as he watched the scene, admitting his father's antics were quite hilarious to watch when he was not the victim.

Urahara interrupted. "We've just decided that Kurosaki-san's hollow is going to take on the role of 'out of town friend'. His name will be Shirosaki Hichigo."

Isshin immediately jumped up and threw his arms up into the air at the injustice of it all. "SHIROSAKI? What kind of name is that? KAA-SAAAAAANN~! Our newfound son has already forsaken us without ever meeting us." Isshin wailed loudly. Shiro looked at Ichigo, hoping for some kind of explanation but Ichigo just shrugged. "Wait." Isshin suddenly darted out to grab Ichigo by his clothes, shaking him. "What did you do to make him hate us so much? I didn't raise you to treat your new siblings so horribly!"

Ichigo punched the man down to the ground and while accentuating each word with a stomp of his foot, he said, "He. Is. **NOT**. My. Brother. Understand?"

Orihime choose this moment to come back in with a plate of tea. "Ichigo-kun… That's not very nice!" she scolded.

Ichigo looked at Orihime incredulously as he pointed to the idiot he currently had pinned under his foot. "HE started it. HE _always_ starts it. I have 10 times the maturity he has and he's probably 30 times older than I am." Isshin quietly muttered something about not being _that_ old.

Urahara was busy smoking a pipe, enjoying the free entertainment. Kurosaki's were always good for that. Orihime set the plate of tea on the table in front of the seat next to Urahara as she passed out the tea. Shiro quickly scrambled to take the seat beside Orihime before Ichigo could sit down, sticking his blue tongue out at him when Ichigo glared at him.

"Thanks, Hime," Shiro thanked her in a sickly sweet voice, receiving a smile from her in return.

Ichigo reluctantly took a seat next to the albino and his father sat between Ichigo and Urahara. "Thanks, Orihime," Ichigo mumbled as she moved to set a cup in front of him.

"Oh, no problem at all… Ichigo-kun," Orihime stuttered out as her face began to flush.

As she turned to set a cup down in front of Isshin, she only caught a glimpse of the gleam in his eyes before he hugged her half to death. "You two are finally on a first name basis! A new son and a new daughter in one day! I can barely contain myself; this is too much happiness for one day!"

Ichigo's mouth dropped for a moment before he socked his father's face over Orihime's shoulder, effectively removing him from Orihime's embrace. "This is you _containing_ yourself? Stupid old man!"

Isshin mumbled something about a daughter while he was knocked out on the floor. Orihime quickly took her seat, face now completely red. "Ma, ma… Such a violent family," Urahara commented as he finished his pipe.

Seething, Ichigo sat with his arms crossed across his chest as his mind reeled. Ichigo's eyes shot open when he felt something prod his ass. Turning around, he saw Shiro's hand firmly attached to his rear end. Ichigo glared at a widely grinning Shiro. A moment later, Shiro flew across the room with blood freely flowing from his newly broken nose, breaking through a door in the process.

* * *

After dinner, the trio headed down with Urahara to the lab to get started on taking measurements for Shiro's new gigai. Urahara had been receiving several upgrades from Seireitei over the last several months, but it had managed to keep that lab at home feel he had come to enjoy over the past century. After instructing the teenagers not to touch anything on pain of death, Urahara whisked off to one of the back rooms.

The room was mostly dark apart from lightly glowing cylinders and test tubes. Even in the low light, creepy looking scientific equipment could be seen everywhere in the large room. Ichigo and Orihime stayed close together while Shiro had decided to satisfy his curiosity and roam around the room, looking but not touching.

Unfortunately, breaking Shiro's nose turned out to be much less satisfying than Ichigo had though it would be. Orihime offered to heal it of course, but much to her dismay, Shiro had refused. He explained that he needed to know if he could still use his regeneration skills. Although the regeneration appeared to be much slower now, his nose had already stopped bleeding on its own and was looking much better than it was half an hour ago.

Suddenly the lights overhead turned on causing the teens to shield their eyes and squint over at the two near the door. "Ah, gomen, gomen. I should have turned the lights on sooner. I did promise Akon-san here a chance to help me with Shirosaki-kun's gigai if he decided he wanted one."

"You made me do all of the in-depth reiatsu analysis. It'd take you longer if you did it yourself," Akon muttered.

"I didn't make you do anything! You volunteered. Besides, I've had a lot of things to keep me busy the last few days."

"Yea, whatever."

Jotting down numbers as they went along, the pair of scientists did some physical measurements followed by waving several other strange looking sensors over the hollow. "So, Shirosaki-san, measurements are almost done," Urahara announced, "but how would you like it to look?"

"What do you mean? Isn't it supposed to look like me?" Shiro blanked.

"Well, yes… But it also needs to look human," Urahara explained.

"Whatever. I don't care. Just make it as close as _humanly_ possible," Shiro said, rolling his eyes.

"You haven't mentioned anything about money," Ichigo blurted out as he came to the sudden realization.

"Nope~" Urahara said, flipping out his handy dandy fan to lightly fan his face.

Ichigo frowned. "How much is this going to cost?"

"It's not going to cost _you_ anything," Urahara stated, as he snapped his fan shut and used it to point at Ichigo.

"Right. So I'm supposed to believe you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart? Is this some sort of dangerous proto-type or something? Or is this just for your own scientific indulgence?"

Urahara let a smile cross his face. "All of the above. However, considering that you have the two best gigai scientists in existing working on a unique gigai for a one of a kind hollow, this is as safe as you are going to get. Your father also already offered to pay for the gigai and any medical services while you were here."

"Goat Face?" Ichigo questioned, confused that his father would offer such a thing.

Urahara laughed. "Some time I'd like to get the full story behind that nickname, but for now we are all done here."

"Finally!" Shiro said, bolting away from the two scientists.

"Now you three get out of here!" Urahara ordered, waving the teens away with his fan.

"We aren't staying here tonight?" Orihime asked.

"Nope, you've all been here for three days. Certainly you've leeched off my kind-hearted hospitality for long enough."

"Che. Whatever." Ichigo turned to leave. He'd only been awake a couple hours and already the damn Geta-boushi was driving him crazy.

"Wait! Before you go, please take those bracelets on the table with you. They will conceal your reiatsu and appearance from the enemy. Wear them at all times when you are outside of the shop. The Kurosaki residence is completely shielded. I also took the liberty to place a barrier around your residence as well, Inoue-san."

"Oh! Arigatou gozaimashita," Orihime said with a bow before retrieving the three bracelets off the table.

"Remember. **At all times** when you are outside of those places. It is extremely important." Urahara emphasized. "Kon should be upstairs by now. Let me know if you have any trouble returning to your body, Kurosaki-san."

"Right."

The teens walked towards the exit of the lab as Urahara called out to them in a sing-song voice, "Have a pleasant evening, you three. The gigai will be done tomorrow afternoon, I'm not expecting you back until then. Be sure to behave and don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Of course Kon had decided to launch himself at Orihime the moment he laid eyes on her, commenting on how big she had grown since he last saw her. A quick foot to his own face, Ichigo quickly knocked the mod soul out of his body with his badge and intentionally set the green pill right next to the stuffed lion on the table. It had been a while since he had been back in his body, the process felt slightly different than usual. As soon as he was back inside his body everything felt normal enough. After a quick touchup to his nose from Orihime, he threw on the bracelet and stepped outside. Ichigo made yet another mental note to try to remember not to beat the shit out of his own body, even if the mod soul occupying it was a serious pain in the ass.

* * *

Three shinigami officers approached the Urahara Shouten, as soon as they had arrived; Urahara stepped out onto the porch area to greet them. "Well?"

"We sensed no unusual activity while the three were outside, sir. Although the hollow exhibited no dangerous behavior, he was… enjoying himself as he harassed the living."

"Harassed the living?" Urahara questioned.

"The hollow took full advantage of his apparent invisibility to pull petty pranks on the living."

Urahara burst out laughing. "I knew I liked that one. He has spunk. Anything else?"

"They arrived at the Inoue residence safely. With your permission, we request to pass through to Soul Society so we can report this to the Captain Commander."

"Of course. Thank you for your assistance." Urahara sat down and watched them open a senkaimon and disappear into the brightly lit passageway. Procuring his pipe from his sleeve, he proceeded to fill and light it before gazing up into the night sky. He let his mind wander as he watched his own exhaled smoke lazily drift upwards.

* * *

_Two days prior_

* * *

"Did you even **bother** to read that report I made at your insistence?" Urahara asked in exasperation. "It clearly stated that one portion of the soul cannot live without the other. If a shinigami dies so does their zanpakutou spirit. As well as their hollow if present. The same applies in reverse."

"The souls appear to be separated completely from one another. I hesitantly gave the vizards my trust but I cannot trust this hollow to behave now that it has a body of its own!" the commander declared.

"If you kill Kurosaki's hollow, he will more than likely die with it," Urahara explained. "Even if they have separate bodies now, they are still linked with each other."

"Where is the proof of this?"

"There are several factors but the hollow appeared in a white version of Kurosaki-san's bankai outfit. There was also a white version of his zanpakutou in bankai form found nearby."

A minute of harsh silence later, the Yamamoto replied, "Then what are suggesting we do?"

"I suggest that you let me take care of their surveillance and protection as I continue my research on this matter. There is no way to be certain that this entity is even Kurosaki-san's hollow avatar until he confirms it himself. If the hollow is the entity that used to reside within the boy, let me make sure that it is to be trusted. This situation does worry me; however it is too early to be making any rash decisions."

"The top priority is to keep those three out of Aizen's hands. I will be informed the moment they awaken and you are to immediately detain the hollow in the same manner as the espada prisoner if you suspect he is unsafe. I will be sending some of my squad's officers to check up on the situation once they have awakened," the commander informed Urahara.

"I understand. Arigatou gozaimasu, Soutaichou." Urahara said graciously, bowing before taking his leave.

* * *

Yoruichi stepped out onto the porch and took a seat next to her long-time friend. "What did they have to say?" she asked, leaning back onto her hands and joining him as he gazed up at the stars.

"They made it there safe," Urahara informed her.

He looked over at her. "I'm honestly surprised at Shirosaki-san's behavior. I thought it was unlikely he would attack souls, but I was not expecting him to possess the type of feelings that he does."

"I think it's kind of cute."

"What's cute?"

"Those three. Ichigo is finally growing up, ne?" Yoruichi said with a sigh. "Ahhh… It seems like it was just yesterday he was that incredibly shy 15 year-old training for bankai. So fun to tease."

"I hope you didn't completely embarrass the poor boy."

"I only flashed him a few times. He didn't have to act like he was going to be scarred for life over it though."

"Leave it to Yoruichi-san to be completely unashamed of her body."

"I get such priceless reactions every time." The pair sat together in a comfortable silence, staring up at the stars together for several minutes before Yoruichi broke the silence once again. "What do you think those three are doing?"

Urahara glanced over at her before letting a smile slowly spread across his face.

* * *

Shiro stopped in the middle of the deserted side walk as they were nearing Orihime's apartment. He watched the two bright-haired teens walk in-front of him, hand in hand. Orihime was laughing and Ichigo was looking down at her fondly as they walked along. Ichigo stopped after a moment and turned around to see why Shiro had stopped. Orihime looked up at Ichigo with confusion before she noticed Shiro had stopped and was looking up at the sky.

"This is your first sunset, isn't it Shiro-kun?" Orihime realized. Shiro looked at her for a moment before taking in every detail about this moment. The sun shone through her flowery knee length shirt making the shadowed outline of her legs stand out. The sunset seemed to make their bright hair glow even brighter as it backlit the couple. Although her face was slightly shadowed, he could still easily see the smile on her face. The sky looked like it was set aflame as the giant ball of light had sunk halfway into the distant horizon.

Shiro nodded as he uttered a single word, "Amazing."

* * *

Well, I went to work on the chapter this morning before bed and decided to cut it off here. Shorter than some of the other chapters, but I like this kind of length. Probably could have had this out a couple days ago if I had decided after I wrote the last part... Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it!

Much more planned for next chapter! Ice cream and shenanigans at Orihime's house, Shiro gets his gigai, a visit to the Kurosaki house, etc. Fun stuff! With all this stress from the upcoming move and such it's been hard to find the motivation or the ability to sit down and write. I'm moving next week so I'm not sure when I'll be doing the next chapter but it's already lined out. Once I get settled in, I'm going to try my best to work on my update schedule. I'm trying my best to get used to writing and setting deadlines but writing has turned out a bit harder and easier in some ways. I can make excuses all I want but the bottom line is I need to do better. I don't want you to forget what's going on between chapters. Thanks for reading!

* * *

Japanese for the Chapter

エロ店長[ero-tenchou] – ero (from erotic- means pervert) tenchou- manager, store leader. Perverted Shopkeeper. Figured it fit Urahara pretty well. (comparable to Naruto's nickname for Jiraiya, ero-sennin… Hehehe, I think those two would get along veryyy well.)

ウルセェ[urusee]- Shut up

商店[shouten] – shop; Urahara shouten, Urahara shop


	9. Chapter 9

"What's the holdup?" Shiro asked with arms crossed behind his back and foot tapping as he waited in the back of the group. The sun had set and the teenagers stood on the dimly lit walkway outside of Orihime's apartment while Orihime fished through her purse for the keys to her apartment.

"Shut up and let her find her keys," Ichigo reprimanded the impatient hollow.

Shiro snuck up behind the oblivious strawberry to perch his head on Ichigo's shoulder and snaked pale arms around his waist. "But I'm _bored…_" Shiro whined.

"Yamero," Ichigo hissed as he struggled in the hollow's hold. Shiro responded with a harsh pinch to the teen's nipple. Ichigo elbowed the hollow in retaliation before mumbling in defeat, "Pervert."

"But you like it, Aibou," Shiro defended playfully as he held Ichigo tighter against his body. "Hurry up, Hime," he chided.

"I'm trying, Shiro-kun... The little green men must have beamed down to misplace them again! They were here earlier—" Turning around to look at the two boys, Orhime cut herself off when she saw Shiro running pale fingers across Ichigo's stomach as he teased along the edge of his captive's pants. The girl swallowed convulsively, cheeks burning when she looked up to see Shiro grinning at her over Ichigo's shoulder. Inverted eyes glittered in amusement as Orihime quickly turned around to resume searching for her keys.

"I think she likes it, King," Shiro whispered into Ichigo's ear.

"I think you're an impatient pervert," Ichigo grumbled.

"Mittsuketta!" Orihime declared, holding her key ring high in victory before sliding the key in to open the door. Shiro released Ichigo, stepping around the orange head to follow shortly behind his princess. Ichigo shut and locked the door behind him as he made his way inside.

Ichigo grabbed Shiro by the back of his white jacket as he was about to pounce on the oblivious girl currently preoccupied by removing her shoes. Quickly slapping a hand over the hollow's mouth and holding him still, he watched as Orihime bounced off towards the kitchen calling over her shoulder, "Tea will be ready in just a minute."

After hearing telltale sounds indicating she was busy making tea, Ichigo released his hold. "What'd you do that for?" Shiro asked incredulously, whipping around to glare at Ichigo as soon as he could move.

"Behave yourself," Ichigo hissed as he gripped on the front of the hollow's clothes. "You looked ready to tackle her to the floor and have your way with her in the middle of her living room!"

Shiro scowled at the continued idiocy of his other half. "Yea, what's your point?"

Ichigo deadpanned, staring at Shiro in disbelief. "My point! Keep it in your pants for more than 2 seconds after you walk in the door, boke!" He said as forcefully as he could manage without alerting Orihime, smacking the hollow on the head for good measure. As soon as Shiro opened his mouth to make a smartass remark, Ichigo cut him off as he continued, "Before you say anything else… Try to think with something other than your dick for a moment. It's her first time… She's nervous enough as it is without you pinning her down the moment you get her in an enclosed space. The first time should be special… not some quick fuck on the floor."

Shiro grimaced as he furrowed his eyebrows, looking off to the side as he realized Ichigo was probably right. "I'm no good with this mushy human shit…" he admitted.

"I know. Just… try to follow my lead," Ichigo suggested as he walked towards the kitchen before pausing and pointing a finger at Shiro. "And don't jump on her for kami's sake!"

"I'll try to control myself," Shiro said with a roll of his eyes, pausing when something caught his eye. "What's that?" Shiro asked, pointing toward the portrait.

Ichigo frowned as he explained, "It's a shrine to her brother. He died a few years ago. They lived alone, so he was all she had."

"Oh…" Shiro said lamely.

"You don't remember-" Ichigo cut himself off when Orihime came into the room carrying a tray full of tea to the low lying table. "Thanks for the tea."

The three sat in an awkward silence as they drank their tea. The hollow watched as the other two took turns catching furtive glances at the other. When he was finished with his tea, Shiro stood up and bluntly stated, "I think I gotta take a leak… or whatever you were talking about earlier. Where's the toilet?" As Orihime answered his question, Shiro gave Ichigo a meaningful look before he made his way to the bathroom.

Orihime collected the cups; Ichigo stood and grabbed the tea pot to assist her. He followed her into the kitchen, setting the teapot next to the sink as she went straight to work cleaning them. Ichigo's eyes wandered around the kitchen noticing the dust that had collected over the past couple months since his friends had the chance to go home. His sisters were definitely going to kill him for not coming home sooner.

Ichigo came up behind her as she finished cleaning and drying the cups. Orihime turned around to put away her tea cups, nearly jumping out of her skin and almost dropping the cups in surprise due to how close Ichigo was. As she backed up against the counter, he stepped forward to close the gap.

"So… What did you want to do tonight?" she asked. "I have some movies…" trailing off nervously as she was becoming overwhelmed by the way he was looking at her.

"Do you really want to watch movies tonight?" Ichigo asked, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, trailing a finger down her neck. "I don't want to rush things or make you uncomfortable though…" Ichigo trailed off, scratching his neck nervously as a light embarrassed blush dusted his cheeks.

"Kurosaki-kun…"

"I thought we agreed on given names," Ichigo teased.

"WAH! Gomen. I forgot!" Orihime exclaimed, clapping a hand over her mouth.

Ichigo smiled at her reaction- she really was too cute for her own good. He softly gripped her wrist to pry her hand away from her face. "Maybe I'll just have to do something to make you remember," Ichigo said softly as he leaned in slowly.

All her anxieties seemed to melt away as his lips pressed to hers. Her frantic heartbeat began to calm itself as she wrapped her arms around him. It'd only been a few days since they kissed but it had seemed like an eternity to her.

So much had happened in the last few days…

All she wanted to do was lose herself to the sensation.

Forget about the outside world for a while.

Orihime pulled him closer and held on to him tightly; returning his kiss as if she needed it more than air itself.

Ichigo chuckled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Better now?" he asked as he smoothly switched their positions around so she could lean against him.

Orihime nodded, hugging him tightly. "I'm just so glad you're alright," she said shakily, attempting to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said, trying to calm her down, stroking her hair. "Everything is going to be alright. We'll get through this," Ichigo reassured her.

"I know… Everything is just going to be so different now."

"Isn't 'different' a good thing?" Ichigo asked with a smile, letting a finger lightly brush her cheek as he wiped away a stray tear.

"Yea. Change is good," she decided, leaning up once more to kiss his lips.

Orihime froze as she felt something soft brush against her neck before a body embraced her from behind. "S-Sh-Shiro-kun?" A shiver ran down her spine as he hummed against her neck in response. Ichigo rolled his eyes at Shiro before grasping Orihime's chin and pulling her back into a deep kiss.

"Why don't we take this to a more comfortable location, ne?" Without bothering to wait for an answer, Shiro wrapped an arm around Orihime and dragged her out to the living room. Shiro shed his top and took a seat on the couch, smiled a mile wide as he caught her heated gaze and hooked a finger in her direction, beckoning her over.

Orihime shyly looked over at Ichigo, as if to ask his permission. Ichigo took one look at Shiro and chuckled, shooing her away towards the hollow. Orihime moved hesitantly as she went to straddle his lap. The hollow gave her hips a gentle squeeze as she sat. Shifting in his lap as she leaned down to kiss him, Orihime was startled when Shiro shot up to meet her halfway.

Ichigo crossed his arms across his chest as he leaned back against the wall to watch the other two heatedly. Shiro wasted no time in invading the girl's mouth with his tongue, swallowing down her moans as his hand came up to grasp her breast, massaging it thoroughly before teasing it through the material of her bra. She gasped as she felt an extra pair of hands working behind her to unclasp her bra. Shiro quickly helped to remove the material, taking one of her nipples in his mouth, teasing it with his tongue. Arcing her back, she began panting heavily as the pleasure started to overwhelm her senses.

Hot breath washed across her neck as Ichigo whispered into her ear, "Should we go to the bedroom?"

Shiro looked up at her expectantly before she quickly nodded her assent. Shiro smiled as Ichigo picked her up off of Shiro's lap to carry her to the bedroom, carefully depositing her on the bed.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?"

Orihime nodded vigorously, propping herself up on the bed. "I've been waiting for such a long time. Please don't make me wait any longer," she begged with half-lidded eyes as she spread her legs suggestively.

"Don't keep the poor princess waitin'," Shiro said, giving Ichigo a slight shove forward before taking a seat next to the princess, untying his hakama and snaking a hand down to grasp himself; slowly moving his hand up and down as he watched.

Crawling forward on the bed, Ichigo captured her lips before slowly kissing his way down her body, hooking a finger around her underwear to slowly remove them. Orihime looked away in embarrassment as Ichigo burned the sight before him into his memory. Ichigo kissed her hungrily as he gently ran a pair of fingers up and down, teasing the folds of her pussy.

Ichigo unzipped his own jeans and carefully extricated his dick, stroking himself as he slowly inserted a finger into Orihime's wet warmth. It was like nothing he had ever felt before but much different than he had imagined. The sensation around his finger already had him wanting nothing more than to fuck her senseless and make her scream his name. Orihime began moving her hips as she tried to get more of that delicious sensation that was setting her body on fire. Ichigo quickly obliged her silent request, adding a second finger as he increased his speed.

Shiro licked his lips as he watched Ichigo lick his fingers clean. Shiro shot up and whispered something in Ichigo's ear. Ichigo grinned and nodded.

"Alright, princess. Upsy daisy."

"Huh?"

"Get up on your knees," Shiro ordered. She looked confused but did as she was told anyways, rolling over to get up on her hands and knees. "Close enough." Shiro lay down on the bed next to her and shifted her so she was positioned over him. The healer was quickly rewarded as he began to lick and tease her wet pussy with his impossibly long, blue tongue.

With every moan that escaped her lips, Ichigo felt like he was getting closer and closer to the edge, stroking himself as he watched. Not wanting for things to be over just yet, he grasped the white material still loosely covering the hollow's lower half, tugging them down and pulling them off as Shiro wiggled out of them. Shiro groaned in surprise and bucked into Ichigo's mouth as he felt those inexperienced lips wrap around his dick.

Having someone else's cock in his mouth wasn't nearly as awkward as Ichigo had been expecting. The taste was certainly pleasant enough as he swirled his tongue experimentally around the head of Shiro's cock. Hearing the slightly muffled sounds escaped the hollow's mouth raised his confidence and made him eager to please. Wrapping a hand around the base of Shiro's dick, Ichigo took as much as he could into his mouth as he started bobbing his head up and down at an even pace. Shiro ran his hands over the body above him, trying to focus as his partner in crime did his best to distract him.

Orihime was completely lost in her own little world as Shiro's tongue did devilish things; his fingers simultaneously tormenting her nipples. A familiar heat gathered quickly, catapulting her straight to that coveted edge. Prying her eyes open, she looked down to see Shiro's eyes flutter shut, growling as Ichigo deep-throated him. Pleasure wracked her body, biting down hard on her bottom lip as the world imploded around her. Failing to control himself, he harshly sucked on her clit in a nearly sadistic manner. Unable to keep herself upright any longer, she fell forward to rest on her forearms before rolling onto her back, panting as she tried to regain her breath.

Orihime had a goofy smile on her face as she stared up at the ceiling, basking in the afterglow. A string of muttered curses flowed from Shiro's mouth. If Shiro didn't know any better, he would have thought the boy was a decorated veteran at sucking dick. Those chocolate eyes held a fierce intensity as they stared back up at Shiro.

Ichigo was startled when he felt a firm grip on his hair pull him up but found himself speechless as Orihime crashed their lips together for a moment. Leaning back on the bed to shimmy out of her skirt, she rolled back over onto her knees to give Ichigo quite the view as she looked back over her shoulder. Happily refocusing his attention, Ichigo quickly slipped out of his jeans, crawling behind her as he met her heated gaze. Shifting her hips backwards, she whimpered in want as Ichigo caressed her ass, rubbing the head of his dick along her pussy teasingly.

"Ready?"

Orihime nodded, humming in response.

"I think that was a yes, King…." Shiro commented as he slid in front of the girl on the bed, sitting up against the headboard as he watched with interest.

Ichigo nodded and began to ease his way forward, gritting his teeth from the overwhelming sensation as he was slowly enveloped by impossibly tight, warm, velvety walls. Pausing as he reached the point of no return, Ichigo ran a hand up her back soothingly before he snapped his hips forward, grimacing at the small muffled groan of pain that came from her mouth.

"Daijoubu... Chotto matte dake..." she reassured.

Ichigo patiently waited, rubbing his hands over her back and sides as he let himself get used to the overwhelming sensation around his dick.

Orihime rolled her hips slightly as she adjusted to being filled so completely.

"Ready for me to move?" Ichigo asked softly. After she nodded hesitantly, he leaned down to wrap his arms around her, pressing a kiss to her shoulder while hugging her tightly. "Alright, but you better speak up if it hurts. I don't want to hurt you."

Keeping things slow at first, Ichigo withdrew almost all the way out before pushing halfway back in, groaning at the way her body seemed to suck his dick back in.

Content to watch Ichigo's face distort in pleasure as it rolled back, the hollow wanted to burn the image into his memory forever. Shiro took in the way that lean muscular body moved in such an enticing manner as it slowly rocked back and forth as Ichigo gently gripped Orihime's hips. The way her body seemed to bounce and jiggle slightly as she was moved, her face was buried in her arms to hide her flushed face. The way his princess moaned out in bliss as Ichigo seemed to brush against something pleasurable.

"Like that?" Ichigo asked as he tried to mimic the movement.

"Yeah… Oh kami…" Orihime bit down on her hand as she fought to stop the embarrassing sounds that escaped her.

Shiro gripped her chin gently, forcing her to look up at him. "Nuh uh. I want to hear those pretty little moans or I'll give you something to keep you quiet," Shiro said, leering down at her flushed face.

"But… Shiro-kun…" Orihime whined.

"Which is it gonna be?" Shiro taunted.

Orihime's eyes went wide in shock as another loud moan escaped her traitorous mouth. She quickly grasped the pale dick standing at attention in front of her, muffled moans vibrating down his shaft as she took Shiro up on his offer. Finding it impossible to concentrate on the task in front of her through the pleasure that fogged her brain, Shiro thread a black-nailed hand into her hair to gently guide her.

Shiro cracked open an eye, spying Ichigo watching him intently with eyes full of fire. "Play with her clit," Shiro suggested with a grin.

As Ichigo reached around her body, Orihime felt something akin to raw fiery pleasure curl up in her core. It was all getting to be too much. All of the sudden, her world went white for the second time that night. Ichigo came to a halt as he felt Orihime's walls squeeze, flutter, and practically milk his orgasm from him. Ichigo felt completely drained as he carefully withdrew a moment later before flopping down on the bed beside Orihime, sweat rolling down his tired body.

Orihime smiled in a complete daze as she let herself slump against the bed, not noticing that Shiro had left until he came back and gently rolled her over. He leaned over her, smiling, "How're ya doing sweetheart?"

She opened her eyes, looking up at him with a dopey smile on her face. "Wonderful," she said dazedly.

"Sou ka na…" Shiro commented with a grin, running his hands lightly across her body. Orihime hummed in pleasure as he pinched her nipple lightly before dragging his fingers down to begin teasing the folds of her pussy. "Ya up for another round?" Shiro asked delicately.

Not able to deny that his touch felt heavenly, making her tingle with pleasure as he teased her, she nodded her assent. Removing his fingers, he moved up to kiss her languidly as he aligned himself and oh so slowly pushed his way in.

Her cheeks burned as Shiro whispered into her ear, "You feel so good." The minor ache between her legs was quickly forgotten as she relished in the pleasurable buzz the friction created…

* * *

Orihime awoke to a loud ringing sound, sun blinding her as she attempted to open her eyes. She blindly reached over to answer the phone when she felt something squeeze around her. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Orihime made another effort to open her eyes again. Ichigo had an arm thrown over her with the cutest scowl on his face while Shiro seemed completely relaxed as he drooled onto her pillow.

"Huh… what?" Ichigo grumbled in a bleary tone as he slowly regained consciousness. "Oh," he said with a smile as he discovered the woman in his arms. "Good morning, beautiful."

Orihime flushed bright red at the compliment, still in shock as Ichigo pressed a kiss to her lips, releasing her before moving to go back to sleep. She felt slightly sore as she sat up but her eyes dropped in shock as she read the time on the clock. "Ichigo-kun… It's 12:30. We're late."

"Huh? 12:30…" He grumbled before it truly registered in his mind. "OH SHIT!" he exclaimed, sitting up suddenly and awaking Shiro.

"We're over two hours late to Urahara's and nearly late for lunch too! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" he cursed, throwing on his boxers as he ran out of the bedroom to collect the rest of his clothes.

Orihime watched in amusement from the bed as he bolted out of the room buck ass naked.

"The hell? What's up with berry-butt?" Shiro grumbled as he sat up, taking a moment to wipe the drool from the side of his face.

"We're late. We need to get ready." Orihime explained.

"Psh… Who cares?"

"Come on you two," Ichigo called as he entered the bedroom. "We gotta goooo."

Orihime laughed. "Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm not going _anywhere_ without a shower."

* * *

"I trust you three had an excellent time last night~" Urahara called from the back as the three stepped inside the shop. Orihime froze and flushed completely red. Urahara came in from the back and took one look at Orihime to confirm his suspicions. "I'm rather interested about how this whole arrangement works for you three, but considering I don't wish to die from my own pupil's sword… I think its best kept to the imagination, don't you?"

"Damn pervert," Ichigo muttered.

"And you love me for it," Urahara teased with a wave of his fan. "Anyways, your gigai is ready and waiting for you, Shirosaki-san. Follow me."

Orihime was still frozen in shock as Ichigo followed Urahara to the back. "Come on, Hime," Shiro whispered in her ear as he came up behind her. "It's not that bad, is it?" he asked as he trailed kisses down her neck, teasingly gripping her hip.

Orihime let her eyes close as she leaned back into the hollow. "No…"

Shiro spun her around and gave her a soft kiss. "I'll make it up to you later," he promised in a tone that made her spine tingle. He took her hand in his and led her to the back before her brain caught up to what was going on again.

They quickly caught up with Ichigo before they made it down to the room Urahara had stored the gigai laying out on a table.

Orihime went into a fit of giggles as soon as she caught sight of what the gigai was wearing. She wondered if Urahara dressed all of the gigai he made this way on purpose. It was clad in a very '70's green leisure suit and a pink tie-dyed shirt with a pair bright blue socks and leather clogs.

Shiro approached the gigai, poking it curiously. "Hey there, good-lookin'."

"You didn't really give me any specifications, so I just kind of winged it," Urahara explained. "You said you two weren't going for the twin thing, so I made the gigai about 10cm taller than your spiritual height."

"You made him taller than me?" Ichigo asked, grimacing at the grin on Shiro's face.

Urahara shrugged. "Other than coloring, you two look exactly alike. I figured I'd make him a little taller to be on the safe side. Besides, you're still growing," Urahara explained, snapping his fan shut as he pointed it at Ichigo. "The gigai will not."

"Oh," Ichigo said lamely.

"I also had to make your eyes more normally colored. I couldn't exactly go with white on white, so I went with gold instead of the red that is most often associated with albinism."

"Why gold?" Shiro asked.

"Ichigo's eyes are yellow and black when he used the mask. I also made you slightly less purely white than you were to make it look more natural." Urahara saw the hollow cringe and quickly added, "Only by a shade or two; nothing too noticeable. Your type of white is completely unnatural though. Even albino's have some color to their skin. I hope everything else is to your satisfaction."

Holding his arm out to compare the color differences, Shiro shrugged at the slight difference. "Yea, yea. Looks fine. Can I try it on now?" he asked, impatiently poking the gigai.

"Go ahead."

"Sooo…. I just jump in?"

"Just lie down and let yourself settle into it. It should come naturally," Urahara said.

Shiro shrugged and hopped up on the table, slowly sitting down as he allowed himself to meld with the gigai. After a moment, Shiro tested out his movement capabilities testing out then sat up on the table. "I don't like it. It feels constricting."

"It takes some getting used to," Urahara assured him.

Shiro slid off the table and stretched as he stood. "Maybe it's just the pants," he said with a shrug.

"His fingernails are still black," Ichigo noted.

Urahara smiled from behind his fan, eyes hidden behind the shadow of his hat. "Ururu had fun painting them while we were waiting for you to show up."

"Huh? You painted my nails?" Shiro asked, inspecting them.

"It will wear off in a couple of days so you will need to keep reapplying it if you want to keep them black," Urahara explained, tossing a bottle of black nail polish at the hollow.

"We need to get going. We're late for lunch," Ichigo pressed.

"Alright, let me know if you have any problems with the gigai or anything else." Urahara said as he escorted them out of the shop, waving goodbye with his fan from the porch as they left.

* * *

Shiro was the center of attention as they made their way to the Kurosaki house, passing strangers staring at the oddly dressed albino. "I think I'm startin' to agree with you about the old pervert, Ichi…"

Ichigo laughed. "Oh yeah? Why is that?"

"You know all those measurements he did?"

"Did he grope you or something?"

"No…"

"What's with the sudden change of heart then?"

"It's more a matter of what he didn't measure… If ya catch my drift."

"Huh?"

"It's anatomically correct!" Shiro said pointing to his crotch. "How the hell does he know that kind of stuff?"

Orihime stared at Shiro's crotch for a moment, a blush burning up her face as she finally figured out what Shiro was hinting at.

"God damn perverted know-it-all," Ichigo grumbled.

* * *

Ichigo let out a yawn as he stepped through the doorway. "Tadaima…"

Pounding footsteps could be heard coming from the clinic. "Osoi!" Isshin yelled as he went flying into the air, feet first towards his two very late sons. Ichigo and Shiro glanced at each other before they each caught a foot and sent him flying towards the wall.

"Hello Hime-nee. Who's the guy in the disco suit?" Karin asked, amused as she watched the scene from the table.

Shiro looked over at the dark haired girl. "What's a Disko?"

Karin looked between Shiro and her brother several times, confused now that she had gotten a good look at the stranger's face. "What the…"

Isshin conveniently popped up to explain, managing to exclaim, "This is your new brother!" before Ichigo punched the crazy man back down to the floor where he belonged.

"NOT my brother…" Ichigo emphasized with another kick to Isshin's gut.

"Why are you so late, Ichi-nii?" Karin asked nonchalantly.

"Woke up late and got held up at Urahara's," Ichigo explained with a shrug.

"Onii-chan! Your hair is a mess!" Yuzu scolded as she walked in the room.

Ichigo inspected the hair hanging in front of his face that could probably be considered bangs at this point. "Yea, I guess it has been almost 2 months, hasn't it? I'll let you cut it later, I'm gonna go grab Shiro some regular clothes."

"It's okay, King. I can dress myself like a big boy, ya know." Ichigo rolled his eyes as Shiro headed up the stairs. After throwing on a random T-shirt and the loosest pair of pants he could find, Shiro made his way back down the stairs. Ichigo was wrestling his father once again as Shiro walked over and stood next to the dark-haired girl.

"Asked about when Ichi-nii was going to marry 'Hime and grandkids," Karin explained, eyes glued to the scene before them.

"Onii-chan… Otou-san… Stop fighting or no lunch for you," Yuzu reprimanded from behind the counter.

Isshin extricated himself from Ichigo and threw himself at her feet as he begged for forgiveness.

"Go sit down, It'll be done in a few minutes," Yuzu said, shooing Orihime out of the kitchen before she had a chance to ask to help.

* * *

One excellent meal and 45 minutes later, everyone at the table was completely stuffed.

"Thanks for cooking, Yuzu. It was really good," Ichigo complimented.

"No problem. Okaeri, Onii-chan."

"Thank you for the meal, Yuzu-chan."

"Yea, that was the best food I've ever had. Thanks," Shiro added. Ichigo rolled his eyes as his sister practically sparkled at the compliment.

"So, Ichi-nii… Were you ever going to explain what's up with your pasty twin over there?" Karin asked.

Ichigo sighed… He'd been debating how to go about explaining it during the entire meal and had yet to come up with anything.

"Well… obviously he's not human. He's posing as my "school friend" as far as that goes. The rest is a bit complicated…"

"So he's wearing one of those gigai things?" Karin asked.

"Yep," Shiro responded.

"So he's a shinigami."

"Not exactly…" Ichigo said.

"So what is he?"

"I'm a hollow. Or I was a hollow… Part of a zanpakutou? Not really sure what I am anymore…" Shiro pondered.

Karin stared at Shiro with a gaping mouth. "A hollow?"

"Okay. To make a long story short, a couple of days ago Aizen did something to me and basically split my soul into two. You've seen me use my mask before Karin. He's basically the hollow part of my soul."

"So he's your evil twin," Karin deduced as a smirk spread across her face. It explained the strange sense of familiarity she felt around him at least.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Sure."

"If he's your evil twin, then he's your brother."

"HE'S NOT MY BROTHER!"

Isshin decided to enter the conversation at this point. "He'll need more than one pair of clothes, Ichigo. Where else is he gonna stay?" he asked seriously.

"I hadn't thought about that really…" Ichigo admitted.

Ignoring Ichigo and asking Shiro, "Look. I don't care what your relationship is with Ichigo or what the two of you want to call it. As I understand it, you two are still linked together at some level. If you two can get along, I'd like for you to be a part of this family. You can stay in Ichigo's bedroom and I'll pay for a new bed, clothes, food and whatever else you might need within reason."

Everyone in the room stared at Isshin. They had been seeing more and more of his serious side since he had revealed that he was a shinigami, however it was still extremely rare. Shiro looked over at Ichigo, looking for some sort of sign. Ichigo nodded in agreement. "Thank you."

"Ahh.. domo." Shiro said hesitantly with a small bow.

Isshin darted over towards the poster of Ichigo's mother, shouting his achievement of gaining a second son for all to hear as tears streamed down his face. Ichigo rolled his eyes as he got up out of the chair. "Mou ii. We'll be back for dinner."

"Wait! Dinner is at 7 o'clock sharp. Here's my credit card. Go make yourselves useful. Buy some clothes and some bedding. The bed is already up in Ichigo's room."

Ichigo grabbed the credit card out of his father's hand and walked past him towards the door. "Thanks. Bye."

* * *

"You like it?"

"Love it." He said happily as he lapped away at the ice cream cone.

Orihime smiled, working on her own cone. A minute later, she offered Shiro a taste of her cone, which he happily accepted.

"That one is good too! How many different flavors are there?" He asked curiously.

Orihime started ranting about how she loved Ice cream and there were thousands of different flavors. Shiro got distracted by some punks walking by, staring at one in particular. She noticed his distraction. "Shiro-kun?"

"What are those?" he asked, gesturing to one of the people walking by.

"What do you mean? Those are just a bunch of Yankees."

"No I mean the metal on his face and his ears." He asked, fascinated.

"Oh those are just piercings. A lot of girls get their ears pierced, but some people pierce other things like their eyebrows, lips, upper ears, tongues, and… other things." She explained with a blush.

"What do ya mean 'other things'?" he asked.

"Some girls get their belly buttons pierced… or…" she continued on but was mumbling so quietly he couldn't hear what she was saying.

"Or what exactly?"

"Nipples." She said in a hushed tone, cheeks tinting in embarrassment

"Ooh. So how does it work and how do you get it done," Shiro asked, riveted as he returned back to his cone.

"You go to a place that does it, pay some money, and they do the piercing. It basically shoves a piece of sharp metal through your skin. It takes a while to heal." It finally clicked in Orihime's head. "You want to get some piercings?"

"Yea, they look like fun. How much do they cost?"

"I'm not sure… depends on how many you want and where…"

Shiro just gave her a knowing grin. He went back to finish the rest of his ice cream when she broke out laughing.

"What?"

"Your tongue- it's blue again."

"Oh?" he said, sticking out his tongue, trying to get a good look at it but failing, only making her giggle even more. She reached into her purse and pulled out her cellphone.

"Here, stick out your tongue." He complied, giving her a seductive look as she took the picture. She smiled at the picture before going to show him.

"Heh, cool."

Ichigo walks up on the both of them licking away on their Ice cream cones, mind thoroughly stuck in the gutter as he watched them. Shiro looked up at him and just gave him a knowing look as he locked eyes with Ichigo, giving his ice cream a slow lick, licking his lips. Ichigo broke out of his trance when Orhime spotted him, waving vigorously, completely oblivious to Shiro's actions.

"Ice cream huh?"

"Mmm. I spotted the cart and we decided to stop for some. You got done quickly."

"I didn't have much to buy… just a couple shirts, pants, and some other stuff."

Ichigo waited a minute while the two finished their cones and they walked down past the stores. A few minutes later, Ichigo rolled his eyes as Shiro's lit up as he finally found a store that had what he was looking for. He was practically drooling at the manikin in the window. "They're perfect."

"You really like those hakama don't you? Yea, I guess this is about the closest thing you will find in modern clothing."

"I don't understand how you can stand those damn jeans, Ichi. My junk needs room to breathe, ne?"

"Ohh… Is this the kind of clothing you want, Shiro-kun?" she asked, looking over at him, imagining the black and metal jeans on Shiro. She had to admitted, it kind of fit him.

"Yea, I wanna get a couple of those and some Tee-shatsu or whatever you call 'em and I'll be set."

"Oi. Don't forget you need to get your own boxers, prick."

"Awww… But Ichi, I like sharing with you." Shiro said leaning dangerously close to Ichigo.

"Quit it Shiro." Ichigo growled, only causing Shiro to grin further.

"But you like it," Shiro teased, quickly wrapping an arm around Ichigo, grabbing his ass forcefully.

Ichigo quickly slipped out of the grasp, "Not in public," Ichigo hissed.

Orihime giggled at the two boys, grabbing Shiro's wrist and pulling him backwards into the store.

"Aww… but, Hime… You liked it too," Shiro whined.

"Hai, hai," she replied automatically as she continued to drag him along. "Let's get the shopping done now and worry about that later."

"Che... No fun at all." Shiro muttered with a roll of his eyes.

An hour later, they were walking out of the store with several bags of clothes.

"I thought you didn't like tight stuff," Ichigo said, pointing to the tight shirt Shiro had changed into after purchasing.

"No, what I said is that I don't like tight pants squeezing my balls to death," Shiro retorted. "Besides, I look fuckin' good."

Ichigo chose to just keep his mouth shut about that, but couldn't help but agreeing that the clothes definitely suited the albino very well. The pants fit tightly around the hips, showing off his ass but were baggy everywhere else. They flared out slightly and covered his shoes at the bottom. Shiro had fun playing with all the rings and straps on his pants as they walked along. Ichigo and Shiro decided that they'd just make a quick stop to pick up some shoes that they could share before heading home. Shiro suddenly paused.

"Come on, the shoe store is just up there," Ichigo said pointing to the store.

Orihime followed Shiro's line of sight to a piercing and tattoo shop.

"Eh, fine." Shiro slumped.

Orihime grabbed Shiro's wrist and pulled him towards the store. "It will only take a minute, Ichi-kun. We'll catch up with you later."

"Hime?" Shiro questioned the girl's actions.

"I can't buy you all the piercings you want today, but I'll buy you one. Think of it as a little present from me," she whispered

Shiro's eyebrows shot up, looking down at her. "You don't have to."

"No. I don't. I want to," she explained, turning around and opening the doors and going inside. Shiro stared at the doors for a moment before smiling and following her.

Ichigo stood there watching the albino stare stupidly at the door before following her inside. 'So he wants piercings, huh?'

Behind the counter sat a scruffy dark haired man, covered in tattoos and piercings, leaned back, feet on the counter apparently napping. Orihime took a few minutes to look around the store; Shiro was already avidly looking at all the different studs and things. A few minutes after opening the store, a cell phone blared from behind the counter. Before the second ring, the phone was flipped open and up to the man's ear as he answered, "Moushi moushi… Yea… No I'm all out… Yea, well you're gonna have to get some of your own for once… Not my fuckin' problem." He flipped the phone shut, leaning back in the chair, getting ready to go back to sleep when he noticed two new customers staring at him from around the corner of one of the display cases. "Well? What can I do ya for?"

Shiro smiled. "I don't really know, there's so many I want to get."

"Tats or piercing?"

"I dunno, at first I was thinkin' piercing, but those tattoos of yours look pretty cool too."

"We'll start with the piercings for today," Orihime interjected. "I'm buying him his first one for his… birthday!"

"Awww. That's awful nice of your girlfriend. Well, you're in luck. We're havin' a two for one sale today. Since it's your birthday, I'll throw in one of the pieces for free too."

Half an hour later, Ichigo had gotten a couple pairs of shoes he figured Shiro would agree with and walked towards the piercing shop. Shiro and Orihime walked out before he got too close. Ichigo smiled as he saw the left side of Shiro's lip pierced with a simple black ring.

"Lip ring, huh?"

"Yush." Shiro slurred.

Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows. "They had a two for once sale going on," Orihime explained quickly. Shiro stuck out his tongue showing off the yellow smiley face stud that was now in the middle of his tongue. Leering at Ichigo.

"It'll bfine. Iyull be furry he-ulled bah tanite." Shiro managed to get out, giving Ichigo a wink.

* * *

"OIIII!" the hollow hollered as he pounded his fists against the cage that was confining him. "OI! ANYBODY THERE?" Something about being in a cage really rubbed him the wrong way. It looked fairly sturdy and seemed to be reinforced with some type of kido. If it weren't for the damn reiatsu restrictors that had been slapped around his neck while he was unconscious, he would have broken out already.

Releasing a large sigh, he sat down on the small cot and ran a hand through his hair as he tried to focus. If they hadn't killed him yet, someone would come by fairly soon. Hopefully he'd get a chance to talk to the shinigami fairly soon. If he could get them to listen, it would make going through all of this bullshit worth it. Folding his arms behind his head as he smirked and leaned back on the small cot they had given him, he patiently waited for his captors to show themselves.

* * *

dA Omake

* * *

And it was at that precise moment that Ryuuken took the opportunity to burst through the door. "No no no… There will be none of that."

"Ishida-san?" Orihime yelled.

Shiro looked ready to kill the intruding megane-yarou. Eyebrows were twitching, reiatsu raging, psychotic grin spread across his face.

"There will be no smut on dA. Now if you don't mind, Inoue-san, Please put your clothes back on. I will be driving you home."

"But I'm already at home…"

"Oh. Right then. I'll be driving you back to my place where we can do… things appropriate for your age level," Ryuken explained. "Like playing Twister and jumping on my trampoline in a bikini."

"… How did you get in my house?" Orihime asked, baffled.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was attempting holding back a certain topless hollow that was seeing red and chanting, "Korosu korosu koro- Wait… What in the fuckin' hell is twister?"

Ichigo heaved a sigh. "Fucking cockblocking hentai-yarou…" Growling as he marched towards the door, Ichigo pushed Ryuuken out of the apartment, slamming the door in his face before dragging the other two into the bedroom.

Ichigo needed his beauty sleep.

* * *

Sorry again for the long-ass wait in between updates. My life has been really hectic lately to say the least. I hope you enjoyed it! Anyways, this chapter has been hell to get done so I'm glad it's done so I can finally move on with the story. Already have some of 10 done and will start working on it again soon.

I wrote a yaoi GrimmxIchixShiro 1-shot - if you guys are interested, go check it out.

* * *

Japanese

止めろ[yamero] – Quit it  
見つけった[mitsuketta] – I found it~  
ごめん[gomen] - Sorry  
大丈夫[daijoubu] – I'm okay  
ちょっと待ってだけ[chotto matte dake] – Just wait a minute  
そうかな[sou ka na] – I guess that's right; I bet  
ただいま[tadaima] – I'm home  
遅い[Osoi] - Late  
お帰り[Okaeri] – Welcome home  
どうも[domo]- Thank you  
もう良い[mou ii] – I've had enough  
Tシャツ[Tee-shatsu] – a play on how Japanese pronounce T-shirt  
申し申し[moushi moushi] – Hello (telephone)  
メガネやろう[Megane-yarou] - 4-eyes; Glasses-bastard  
殺す[korosu] – to kill; I'm gonna kill him


	10. Chapter 10

Ignoring the need to catch her breath after running to the top of Soukyoku hill, Orihime released Shun'o and Ayame as soon as she saw Ichigo lying on his stomach in a pool of his own blood, sprinting towards his body, adrenaline releasing throughout her system. Panic nearly consumed the healer as she realized that his spine was the only thing holding the two halves of his body together. Orihime choked back a sob when Ichigo turned his head, looking up at her with those defeated eyes. 'How on earth can he still be conscious? How could someone do something so cruel?' Orihime shook the thoughts from her head, taking a deep breath. 'I need to be strong. I can do this. I refuse to let him die. When I'm done,_ he won't even have a scar.'_

Droplets of sweat ran down Orihime's face as she focused her energy, pushing every ounce of reiatsu she had into the brightly glowing shield underneath her trembling hands. The healer choked back a sob as she forced herself to inspect the damage thoroughly. The blood on the ground was slowly retreating back towards Ichigo; his organs stopped seeping blood from their cuts as severed intestines began to curl back up into his body. Orihime wrenched her eyes shut as she swallowed the bile gathering in her throat, taking slow steady breaths to keep herself calm.

The world was complete chaos around her. Orihime was barely aware of her surroundings as orders were barked left and right, attempting to organize medical attention for all of the injured. By the time the others had arrived, Orihime had managed to regenerate enough skin over the wound so they could help her roll Ichigo onto his back safely. Keeping her eyes focused on Ichigo, each of her friends took a place around her healing shield as they watched her powers at work.

Orihime's heart ached as she heard Rukia's screams calling out for her brother, trying to make sense of his actions. The healer knew better than most what it was like to lose a brother; and as much as it hurt her, she knew couldn't afford to heal them both.

A soothing presence overtook Soukyoku hill as Unohana arrived, riding upon the large creature of her Zanpakutou. Orihime felt a state of calm wash over her as the captain dismounted and walked past her towards Byakuya.

Within the depths of his mind, Ichigo could hear the faint murmuring of a conversation inside his inner world. There was no pain as he was enveloped by her powers. Ichigo almost felt like he was dreaming. It felt like he was floating on air in a daze. Warm… as if he had just woken up from an afternoon nap in the sun. Watching a stray tear run down her cheek as she focused so fiercely on rejecting his wounds, Ichigo reached a tired hand out towards her without thinking. Something akin to a static shock zapped his hand as it came in contact with her shield, leaving a lingering buzzing sensation in his fingers. Ichigo stared at his hand for a moment as he tried to comprehend what had happened. 'Rejection, huh?'

_Good job, moron. You made her cry over your pathetic ass twice in one day… _his hollow commented.

Ichigo cringed at the familiar voice, hearing it for the first time outside of his inner world. He really needed to get stronger if there was a war coming… There had to be some way to get his hollow under control.

_You, control me? HA!_

_Don't tempt me, asshole. I'll come in there and kick your ass, _Ichigo replied.

_Go ahead and try,_ the hollow taunted. _I'll just kick your Technicolor butt and claim the princess for my own._

_Like hell, _the shinigami growled. _I won't let you touch a hair on her head._

Bringing a palm to his forehead, Ichigo began attempting to force the hollow back into the depths of his inner world. Surprisingly enough, it worked.

"Are you alright, Kurosaki-kun? Does your head hurt? Are you in any pain?" Orihime asked as she noticed Ichigo clutching at his head.

"Ahh… Betsu ni," he brushed off. "Just a little tired."

_What was he supposed to tell her? The monster inside his head was fighting him for control over his body? And if it succeeded, the demon would claim the girl as some kind of trophy?_

"But I thought…" Orihime trailed off, cocking her head to one side as she thought for a minute about the abnormal reiatsu vibrations she felt moments ago. "Never mind! You should get some rest," Orihime said energetically. "I'm actually feeling a bit tired myself! Maybe I'll take a nap before I finish healing you." The glowing orange shield flickered as she paused for a moment, her speech becoming a bit slurred as she continued, "I'm shurrr I can get somebodyy to take you… downnn to the… 4th divisionnn…" Orihime trailed off, her shield disappeared as she fainted. Ichigo tried to catch her only to be stopped by the severe shooting pain in his stomach when he moved.

A blonde fourth division officer approached the group after he saw what had happened. After a quick inspection of the girl, eyes lingering in an obvious manner, he determined that she had merely passed out from severe exhaustion and reiatsu depletion.

"I was surprised to see how quickly she healed you. However, it seems to have put a severe strain on her system," Iemura explained, his glasses catching sunlight as he readjusted them. "She will be able to finish your treatment by tomorrow. Until then, I will move the two of you to the intensive ward in the medical center. I will carry Miss Inoue and have someone send for a stretcher for you."

Ichigo had a scowl on his face at the mere thought of some 4 eyed pervert carrying an Inoue off to who knows where. Chad took one look at Ichigo's face before exchanging a silent conversation with Ishida.

"That's unnecessary," Chad informed the 3rd seat, placing a hand on his shoulder as the officer went to pick up the girl. "I will carry her."

Iemura thought it over as he stared up at the ryoka giant. Deciding it wasn't worth arguing with the intimidating man, he allowed the human to carry her.

"Thanks, Chad," Ichigo murmured.

"Mmm," he hummed as he gently lifted the girl up into his arms, carrying her easily with an arm under her legs and supporting her back. Ishida followed shortly behind the giant as they made their way back to the fourth division.

Ganju was left alone with Ichigo until his stretcher arrived. "Man, you're one lucky guy to have a girl like that," he commented with a slight blush on his face as he watched Chad walk off with the healer. Ichigo quickly corrected him, stuttering as he informed the other that he was only friends with Inoue.

Well you better change that soon," Ganju said over his shoulder, following after the rest of the group. "Actually, never mind. I bet a ride on Bonnie-chan would totally make her fall for someone as handsome as me."

"There's no way someone like her could ever want to be with a monster like me," Ichigo muttered to himself as he saw a stretcher coming to take him away.

_Who would want to be with your weak ass? The princess deserves much better, _his hollow agreed.

* * *

Underneath the floors of Urahara's shop, the dusty floors of the training area were illuminated as a senkaimon appeared. "Mendokuse…" Akon grumbled with a sigh as he stepped out of the gate. Reaching into his white lab overcoat as the door closed behind him, he fished a lighter and his cigarettes out of his pocket, placing one between his lips and lighting it. Breathing out a sigh of relief as a fresh dose of nicotine entered his system, a loud noise on the other side of the training center captured his attention.

A quick bit of shunpo over to the makeshift reiatsu-proofed cell and Akon found that the captive espada had awoken; apparently none too happy about his current circumstances.

"Oi, teme! I need to talk to somebody!" the hollow bellowed from within his cage, banging against the sides of the cage.

Akon quirked his brow at the captive's actions; he was unconscious a couple of hours ago before Akon had left... "Then talk."

"I need to talk to Kurosaki, get his ass over here," Grimmjow demanded from within his confinement.

The substitute's history with the Sexta was rather well known throughout the ranks. Their explosive battles were rather hard to ignore, not to mention messy. Needless to say, Akon was a bit skeptical that the arrancar only wanted to talk with the boy. "Why Kurosaki?"

"I've never even seen yer ass before," Grimmjow growled as he paced the length of the enclosure. "I got some important information and I can only talk to Kurosaki about it!"

"What kind of information are we talking about?" the scientist inquired.

"None of yer business."

Akon smirked and flicked the ash from his cigarette. "Somehow I doubt that he'd want to see you, let alone talk to you," he explained, taking a long drag from his cig.

"He'll want to hear what I have to say," Grimmjow said confidently, crossing his arms across his chest.

Akon studied the espada for a moment, fierce blue eyes refused to look away until the other relented. After closing his eyes and shaking his head, Akon decided that he'd just inform Kisuke and let him deal with the unruly espada. As he turned around to leave, he heard the espada add, "And get that damn cat out of here! It's creepin' me out…"

_Cat? _Akon looked around for a cat, only to spy the former second division captain perched atop one of the nearby rocks, flicking her tail lazily as she looked down upon them with amusement. _You knew he was awake this entire time and didn't bother to inform anyone…_

* * *

Sunlight had just barely begun to shine through the bedroom window as Ichigo was awoken by the sound of feet thundering up the stairs towards his bedroom. Groaning as his father broke through his door flying feet first through the air, Ichigo rolled over, sticking his leg out at an odd angle to put his foot on an unavoidable crash course with Isshin's groin. Ichigo snuggled back into his pillow intent on getting more sleep, ignoring the high-pitched wail as his father fell to the floor. Shiro cracked open his eyes to see what all the commotion was only to be met with the sight of Ichigo's father on the floor, seemingly cupping his manhood in extreme pain as tears flowed freely down his face.

"Why does my lovely son forsake me so!" Isshin squeaked out between sobs.

"I warned you last night that I wouldn't put up with your bullshit," Ichigo grumbled. "But you just had to come flying in like a maniac_._"

Isshin quickly recovered, moving over to the bed, yanking on Ichigo's blanket as he defended himself, "Only because Urahara just called for you to go to the shop in an hour for training!"

Groaning at the prospect of having to spend quality time with the ero-tenchou this early in the morning, Shiro rolled over, burying his head underneath his pillow to block out the noise.

Ichigo knocked his father back down to the floor with the base of his fist in as he rolled over to sit up and rub the sleep from his eyes. "That doesn't excuse your rampant insanity in the morning, old man."

Isshin made his exit as he complained loudly about disrespectful sons, door slamming behind him. "Crazy old goat," Ichigo grumbled as he slid his long legs to hang over the side of the bed, running a hand through his shaggy hair before forcing himself to stand up and start getting ready. Ripping the blankets off of his new roommate as he made his way over to his closet, the orange head began searching through his wardrobe for something clean to wear.

* * *

Orihime was half awake as she blindly reached towards the source of incessant ringing

"Moshi moshi…" she answered with a yawn.

"_Ah, Inoue-san! Ohayo gozaima~su. Your beauty radiates through telephone lines even at this early hour." _

Orihime held the phone in front of her, staring at it in confusion before responding, "Urahara-san?"

"_The one and only. I was calling to inquire if you could come to do a check up on our little prisoner now that he has awoken."_

"Ano…"

"_Thank you, see you soon." _

Orihime lay in bed for a moment; staring up at the ceiling as the dial tone blared into her ear before comprehending what had just happened and setting the phone back down on the receiver. Eyes fully opening as she saw the time on her alarm clock. _"__**EH?**__"_

* * *

After eating one of the biggest meals of his life for a 'welcome home' breakfast, Ichigo groaned at the uncomfortable feeling from his stomach stretching past capacity. They made their way towards the shop just as the sun was starting to rise. Ichigo had known that he shouldn't have eaten that much before heading off to train… but after seeing how effort his sister had made, who was he to refuse such an extravagant meal?

Shiro didn't seem to be fairing much better. The white-haired demon had nearly hugged the life out of Yuzu after rushing down the stairs to figure out what was making such a heavenly smell. Shiro had easily put Ichigo to shame, eating three times as much as the strawberry. Ichigo could already tell that the hollow had a soft spot for Yuzu. He was glad that his family had accepted his hollow so easily and visa-versa.

They were probably late but Ichigo couldn't make himself care. He missed spending time with his family and he would be the first to admit that he was in desperate need of the haircut Yuzu had forced on him before they left. Ichigo didn't mind the longer hair but his usual style was much easier to deal with on a daily basis, especially when most of those days had been comprised of one heated battle after another. Surprisingly, Shiro had tried to refuse a haircut from the girl but ended up relenting after she promised to only do a small trim.

"Your sister is going to kill me with her cooking…" Shiro groaned from beside Ichigo as they neared the shop.

Ichigo couldn't help but chuckle. "I warned you not to eat so much."

"I couldn't help it! It was too delicious to pass up!" Shiro defended, groaning as he put a hand to his slightly bulging stomach. "It hurts so good…"

"We're supposed to be training in a couple of minutes, how do you expect to fight like that?"

Walking up to the door of the shoten, Shiro pondered the question before admitting, "Can't say I was really thinking about it at the time… Hopefully when I ditch this gigai, I won't feel so…"

"Bloated?" Ichigo supplied as he opened the door.

"Yea."

The two made their way back to where the ladder down to the training grounds was located, opening the hatch before making their way down. As the albino made it to the bottom of the ladder, he spotted Grimmjow talking with Orihime half way across the training area. Quickly using the battle badge Urahara had made for Shiro, he ditched his body before launching himself to kick Grimmjow in the face, sending him flying back several yards.

Rubbing the unmasked side of his face and slowly picking himself off up the floor, Grimmjow yelled "SON OF A BITCH!"

"Shiro-kun…"

Rage flooded his veins as he breathed heavily. "What? You mind explainin' why you're actin so casual with that bastard?" Shiro asked, irritated and hiking a thumb in Grimmjow's direction.

"Eto… I got done healing him and we were waiting for you two to show up…" Orihime tried to explain.

Ichigo walked up carrying Shiro's gigai before carefully setting it down against a rock and walking up next to the two arguing over why it was dangerous to talk to the enemy. Rolling his eyes, he interjected, "Can't you feel it, Shiro? He has a reiatsu inhibitor on. He couldn't make a cero large enough to hurt a fly right now."

"Just cuz he doesn't have any reiatsu doesn't mean he couldn't hurt her, idiot," Shiro seethed.

"Urahara is less than half a step away. If he tried anything he'd be knocked out before you could say shunpo."

Shiro looked over, spotting the pervert sitting on a nearby rock, smiling and waving in his direction as he petted the black cat in his lap who was purring happily. "I still don't like it," he growled.

"That fuckin' hurt, you prick," Grimmjow complained as he finished walking back towards the group, pausing as he saw the glare Shiro was giving him. "I thought if you saw me talking _nicely_ to your friend instead of shoving my fist through her chest that you'd understand I ain't here to cause any harm. Obviously I was mistaken," Grimmjow said with a huff.

"Doesn't matter how nice ya think yer being. I don't wanna see you within 100 miles of her."

"Who the fuck're you anyways? I've never seen yer pasty ass before."

"He's my hollow," Ichigo explained. "Aizen used the hougyouku to separate us. Why are you here anyways?"

"Shit... Well, I guess it could have turned out worse," Grimmjow said as he walked closer to the group. "At least it doesn't seem like you're under his control. Kinda strange that he looks like you though."

"What are you talking about, Grimmjow?"

"Whatever, I've been waiting for you to get here. We need to talk."

"What could you possibly have to say to me?" Ichigo asked.

"This war has been going on a long time, ne?"

"Yea, so?"

"Aizen ain't gonna stop until he's taken over the world or he dies. I know you're tired and sick of it. I could see it in your eyes the last time we fought. The question is how far are you willing to go to end this war?"

"I'd do anything," Ichigo said without hesitation.

"Even if it meant working with your enemies?" Grimmjow questioned.

"What kinda bullshit are you spoutin', fuzzball?" Shiro demanded.

"It ain't bullshit. You think it's a coincidence I'm here? I ain't so easily captured, ya know."

Urahara flitted over. "You're saying that all was a show?"

"Course it was. There's no way I would have let myself get hit by all those attacks. The only reason I could get away with it was because that freak Szayel gave me something to make it seem as if I wasn't fully recovered from when you went berserk. With any luck, Aizen thinks I'm dead or will be executed soon enough. Either way, he's glad to be rid of me."

"That's not surprising," Shiro scoffed.

Ignoring the comment, Grimmjow continued, "We've fought hard for him and paid back our debt for these forms and he repays us with murder and deceit. We want this war to be over and to be rid of him just as much as you do, so why not work together? It's the only chance we have."

"What terms are you proposing?" Urahara asked.

"The terms are simple. Seireitei and the shinigami stay out of Hueco Mundo unless they have permission and the hollows and arrancar will stay out of Soul Society unless they have permission. Anyone found to be ignoring those rules can be killed. The human world will remain a neutral zone. The arrancar will not attack shinigami or human souls. Arrancar will control Hueco Mundo and Shinigami will control Soul Society. Don't expect the lower hollows to obey any agreement between us or anything," Grimmjow explained. "Shinigami are obviously welcome to continue cleansing any hollows feeding upon souls in the human world."

"Why should we believe a word you say?" Ichigo asks quietly.

"What do you think we gain by this war? We've already paid back our debt to Aizen for our new bodies and powers with our blood. It's obvious we are nothing more than tools to him, he will slaughter those of us that remain alive after he wins this war."

"Is that all?" Urahara prompted.

"Oh yea, I wanna be able to fight Kurosaki anytime I want," Grimmjow said with a grin.

"I'll fight ya any time you want, Kitty," Shiro interjected.

Grimmjow snorted, taking a moment to size up his potential opponent. "Nah, I like yer attitude but it's the Berry I wanna fight, not your pale ass."

Shiro's smile quickly fell into a menacing glare. "I thought I heard you say that you wanted to fight. It shouldn't matter if it's me or him."

"I'm the one calling the shots here so fuck off, _Whitey_."

"I don't think that yer tellin' us the whole story, _Blue_."

"I got no problem fighting you too," Grimmjow growled, "_if yer jealous_."

"We about done here? I'm thinkin' its time for a little spar, ne Grimmjow?" Shiro taunted as he held a pale hand out to summon his bleached Zangetsu out of thin air.

Grimmjow unsheathed his sword, grin quickly matching the one on the demon in front of him. "Sounds good to me. I'll enjoy poundin' you into the floor, Snowflake."

Shiro was buzzing with excitement - he was itching to fight now that he had a body to call his own. "I'd love to see da big ol' putty-tat come and twy it," the hollow teased, tired of waiting.

"Kono yarou!" Grimmjow growled as he lunged forward.

Urahara pulled out a remote, tinkering with it for a moment before explaining, "If you leave this area whether through a garganta or the front door, you will be incapacitated painfully. You can use a portion of your reiatsu but don't release your sword, understand?"

"What, you afraid I'm gonna hurt him?"

"To be honest," Urahara drawled, "Yes. I haven't seen their combat abilities since the two were split but I think it's safe to assume that neither is at their previous level of power yet."

"Tch. Fine. Just don't go blabbing the information I've given you. There are quite a few spies among your ranks." And with a bit of sonido, Grimmjow chased after the waiting hollow, reiatsu flowing through the air as their swords met.

Urahara just sat there with a smirk on his face. These hollow hybrids were eliciting much more emotion than he had ever thought possible - jealousy, concern, possessiveness, greed, irritation… maybe even love. Urahara sighed; he supposed that he should probably relay this new information from the espada to the soutaichou immediately. He could always watch the fight later from his recordings anyways.

Urahara left the two bright haired teens as they took their seats to watch the battle play out before them. Neither hollow was holding back as swords clashed repeatedly. Shiro was about to fire off a getsuga as Grimmjow caught him by surprise, returning the kick to the face, punting him into the furthest wall.

"Iteee," Ichigo groaned as he clutched his head. Before Orihime could ask what was wrong, Ichigo fished his substitute badge from his back pocket, quickly changing into his shinigami form and closing the distance between him and his hollow.

"Sonuvabitch!" Shiro hollered as he picked himself up out of the pile of rubble that had fallen from around where he had crashed into the wall.

Before the two could start fighting again, Ichigo put himself between them, stopping both of their swords. "No more fighting until we talk to Urahara about getting some more medicine, Shiro. I don't want to get a splitting migraine every time you're over a 100 yards from me."

* * *

After another stressful visit to the Urahara shoten, the trio debated what to do for the rest of the day. Orihime suggested going to see Ishida since he was in town, but that was quickly vetoed by Ichigo, "I don't have the patience to deal with that proud Quincy bastard right now."

Shiro suggested food, quickly seconded by Orihime. Ichigo turned around, intent on telling them no, only to stall after seeing their expressions. Orihime was nearly in tears and seemed to be sparkling and Shiro looked… almost exactly identical. Something about seeing that look on a pale version of his own face was highly disturbing. Deciding to simply nod and turn around, he said, "Yea, where ever you two wanna go."

"Where would you like to go Shiro-kun?"

Shiro ignored Ichigo and simply threw an arm around Orihime as they followed Ichigo, deciding on something foreign, then several other places before settling on a burger place they happened to walk past.

After placing their orders, they sat down while they waited for their food to come. "Hey, why don't we stop by the high school after lunch?" Ichigo suggested. "It's been a while since we've paid them a visit."

"That sounds like a great idea, Kurosaki-kun. I haven't gotten to see Tatsuki-chan in a long time and they can all meet Shiro-kun," Orihime said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Ichigo wrote that detail off at first, but Orihime stayed quiet for most of the meal. Answering questions when they were directed at her but otherwise stuck to just nibbling on her burger slowly. He started to worry that he had done something stupid to upset her when he noticed that she had neglected to add anything to her regular combo burger and fries. Ichigo attempted to get Shiro to pay attention to what was going on, but he was too focused on savoring his first burger.

"We could probably stop by when they get their lunch break… It starts half an hour from now," Ichigo suggested, disheartened when he only received a small nod in return from the girl. "I hope school is going alright; it'll be nice to see them again…" Frowning at the lack of response, he tried to lighten the mood. "I'm not making any promises if that perverted lesbian tries to grab you again," Ichigo said, laughing nervously.

Orihime's eyes went wide, hand shaking slightly as she dropped her burger on her plate. "What did you say?" she asked quietly.

He had managed to get Orihime to respond, but not at all in the way he was hoping. "I was saying that if Chizuru were to jump you, I'd have to rip her off you…" Ichigo watched in utter confusion as the girl choked back a sob before suddenly standing and nearly running out the door.

"Oi… What's wrong with the princess?" Shiro asked, taking a sip from his pop.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Ichigo said, leaving his food and quickly striding to the door but by the time he had gotten outside, she was nowhere to be seen. Ichigo groaned. Thanks to the reiatsu bracelets Urahara had given them, every time he tried to sense her location, her reiatsu slipped through his fingers. Ichigo stood looking around and trying to sense Orihime when Shiro finally came outside.

"Mpphku… Herrmmy duuk," Shiro said with a burger hanging out of his mouth and an order of fries in his hand.

Ichigo's eye was twitching in irritation as he grabbed the burger from Shiro's mouth, throwing it in a nearby trash can. "Don't talk with your mouth full of food!"

Shiro took a moment to chew and swallow the remaining food in his mouth as he glared at Ichigo. Opening his mouth to prove it was empty before he started talking again. "Mattaku, Hime wa doko da' to itten datta."

"I don't know where she is," Ichigo admitted. "I can't feel her anywhere."

"That's no good, King. We can't lose our queen with that bastard after us."

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?" Ichigo yelled at the hollow, clenching his fists in frustration.

After receiving some strange looks, Shiro dragged Ichigo away into an alley. "Ya need to calm the fuck down, Ichi. We can't be actin' all crazy, ne? Stay calm. We can't exactly split up to find her but we can ditch these bodies and we'll find her in no time. She couldn't have gotten far."

* * *

Orihime was sitting down on one of the hills near the river; head buried in her arms, quietly weeping when Ishida spotted her quickly ran over. "Inoue-san? Daijoubu ka?"

Embarrassed to be caught crying, she froze before wiped her tears and looked up at him with a weak smile. "Just having a bad day. It's alright, really."

Ishida narrowed his eyes at the gentle healer… she really was too selfless. "I'm afraid I don't believe you," the Quincy said as he took a seat next to his friend. "Crying here, out of all the places in town… It wasn't your fault you know. You can't protect everyone."

Orihime brought her knees up to her chest as she hugged them tightly; trying to fight back the tears that threatened to spill over at any moment. "If I would have told her what was going on, she would have known to stay away," Orihime said, voice void of any emotion.

"No one knew that she could see what was going on until it was too late. You can't go around telling everyone that there's a war going on that normal people can't see," Ishida argued.

"She was my friend!" Orihime insisted loudly. "I should have told her. She deserved to know…" quiet

"It may have been a misjudgment, but it was one we had never imagined," Ishida said gently. "We learned from our mistake and informed the rest of our friends that may have been affected by Kurosaki's abnormal reiatsu."

"So her loss was justified because now we know better?" Orihime asked bitterly.

"Her loss was inevitable. You can't change the past. You can only learn from it and move on as best you can."

"I miss her..." Orihime admitted as tears began rolling down her face again, no longer able to keep her tears at bay. "I should have spent more time with her."

"You can't keep beating yourself up over this. Honshou-san was a unique individual," Ishida said with a small smile. "I'm not sure that you spending more time with her would have been possible without giving her the wrong idea."

"Maybe I should have then..."

"Inoue-san… You would have been okay with leading on your friend then?"

The healer wiped the tears from her face. "No…"

"Besides, you wouldn't have wanted to give Kurosaki the wrong idea." Ishida teased. Inoue hiccupped as she laughed weakly. "How is that dunce doing anyways?"

Orihime peaked up over her knees with a small smile on her face. "He's doing really well."

Ishida felt relieved seeing even a small smile on her face. It was days before she was able to function normally whenever she came here. "Still as dense as always?" he scoffed.

Orihime buried her face behind her knees as she tried to hide the blush on her face. "Nooo…" Orihime admitted.

"Figures… Wait. Nani?" Ishida yelled as he processed what she had actually said. "Seriously?"

Inoue buried her head even more. "Maybe?"

Ishida sat down next to her. "Congratulations. I'm glad he finally was able to get his head out of his ass and finally realize how much you mean to him."

"It's… slightly more complicated than that."

"Huh? Complicated how?"

Orihime looked over at Ishida, confused. "I had assumed Urahara had informed you of what had happened."

"No… I've been training or sleeping when I'm not doing night patrols. Besides, my father still isn't fond of the fact that I'm helping out in this war. Urahara knows not to contact me unless in an emergency."

"There were several attacks during our mission," Orihime explained.

"I thought it was supposed to be some sort of low risk supply mission?"

"It was," she confirmed. "But Aizen sent several attacks after Ichigo. There were so many injured and several killed… That pink haired espada injected him with something and Ichigo's hollow was able to come out more easily after that." Orihime held up her hand before he could interrupt her. "We had a couple days break before it was decided that we were going to return to Karakura town. I got to meet his hollow on several occasions and we ended up growing closer. When we returned to Karakura… Aizen was waiting for us and had detained Urahara elsewhere. He… He used the hougyouku on Ichigo."

"WHAT!" Ishida exclaimed. "Is Kurosaki alright?"

"Hai. Urahara came before Aizen could take us away. But apparently Ichigo is having some memory problems amongst other things… He didn't remember about Chizuru-chan… We were going to visit the high school today. He joked about her and… I couldn't take it so I ran here."

About three seconds after Ishida threw an arm around the girl to comfort her, he had a familiar looking but white sword pressed up against his throat. Ishida was surprised as he looked up to find an oddly inverted looking version of Kurosaki. "Kurosaki…? What-"

"Shiro-kun!"

"Who is this bastard and why does he have your arm around you?" Shiro growled in a watery tone.

"Shiro-kun… You don't remember Ishida-kun?"

"The hell do you think you're doing?" Ichigo yelled as he finally appeared behind Shiro, wrapping his arm around his throat as he dragged him away from Ishida.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE _YOU_ DOING KING?" Shiro yelled as he was dragged back, arms clawing at the arm wrapped around his throat. "You're gonna let some random bastard get all buddy, buddy with our queen?"

Ichigo released his hollow, looking down at him, half in shock, half in confusion. "You don't know who that is?" he asked, pointing at the Quincy.

"Some megane-yarou that's putting moves on OUR queen!"

"Our queen?" Ishida asked aside to Orihime.

"I probably should have explained this before the memory thing," Orihime replied in a hushed tone.

"You don't know who he is?" Ichigo asks again, grasping Shiro by the front of his white jacket and pointing at Ishida.

"Ano… Ichigo-kun?"

"Yea, Orihime?" He asked, looking towards her, still grasping Shiro

"I think you two are having some serious memory problems," Orihime said quietly.

"Serious… memory problems," Ichigo repeated, quieting for a moment before releasing Shiro. "Both of us?"

Orihime nodded. Trying to keep her voice calm and emotions under wraps she asked, "Do you really not remember about Chizuru-chan?"

"What does that perverted lesbian have to do with anything?"

"She's dead, Kurosaki. Honshou-san died several months ago. Right here, at this very location," Ishida explained.

"Seriously? She's… dead?" Ichigo asked. After receiving a small nod and seeing a tear fall down Orihime's cheek as she kept her head bowed and shadow's covering her eyes. "So that's why you were acting so weird. I'm really sorry."

"Baka Ichi," Shiro teased, grunting as he received an elbow in the stomach in response.

"Probably some sort of side effect," Ichigo said quietly. "I was afraid of this."

"Damn it!" Shiro cursed.

"What now?"

"We're gonna have to go see that damn pervert again, aren't we?" Shiro groaned. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Is anyone going to explain why there are two Kurosaki's now?" Ishida asked.

"It's Shirosaki," Shiro grumbled, keeping himself occupied by swinging his sword around by the chain.

"Don't freak out… but he's my hollow. We call him Shiro. We were separated by the hougyouku," Ichigo explained quickly.

Ishida took a moment to process the information. First eyeing Shiro then Orihime, then back to Ichigo. "Ah, I understand now. The hollow was the missing element."

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo asked in frustration.

"It's nothing, I need to get back to my patrol," Ishida deflected. "If you make her cry again Kurosaki, I'll put enough arrows through your neck to remove your head."

* * *

The little flashback at the beginning is right where this story veers off from the canon story line (Chapter 179/Volume 21) Will probably start doing more regular flashbacks at the beginning of each chapter. I hope you enjoyed the chapter~

Japanese

別に[betsu ni] – Nothing; nothing special; nothing in particular  
めんどうくせぇ…[Mendokuse…] – What a pain…  
おはよう ございま～す [Ohayou gozaima~su] – Good morning~  
このヤロー [Kono yarou] – You bastard!  
いてぇぇ [Iteee] – Owww!  
「全く、姫はどこだ」と言ってんだった。["'Mattaku, Hime wa doko da' to itten datta."] – "I said, 'Jeez, Where's Hime?'"  
大丈夫か [Daijoubu ka?] – Are you alright?  
メガネ ヤロー [Megane-yarou] – Four eyes; Glasses-wearing bastard


End file.
